As of 2022, 600 million people in Africa, or 43% of the continent’s population, lacked access to reliable electricity.
Fortunately, that number is on the decline thanks to a boom in microgrid development in recent years. From Nigeria to Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar and beyond, millions of people are now benefiting from increased access to clean, reliable and locally produced electricity.
Whether they’re called microgrids or minigrids (another term for remote microgrids that are not connected to a centralized grid), the electricity delivered by the technology has been proven to drive economic development and reduce poverty as well as improve access to clean water and the internet.
In short, microgrids are transforming lives in rural Africa.
This was on full display in a recent webinar hosted by RePower, a European Union-funded project that has been instrumental in installing renewable plug-and-play microgrids across the African continent.
During the webinar, “Productive Uses of Renewable Electricity in Africa,” RePower highlighted several innovative renewable energy microgrids, illustrating how productive uses of energy can break poverty cycles and improve quality of life.