The Big Switch
Will dissemination/distribution of affordable electricity reach the capacity that will provide universal access?
Who would have thought in 2021 that in 10 years by 2030 the world would be able to accomplish its goal of 100% electrification for everyone?
Back in 2021, this seemed like an asymptotic dream with around 10% (760 million) of the world population still living in darkness. The majority (78%) of these people were in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The region was for long a witness of some of the major conflicts and exploitations for resources like minerals, oil, etc. The gender gap is also one of the biggest in the world, with women being responsible for 60-80% of agriculture production, while owning just 13% of lands. The main reason for women not participating in the main market is the lack of networking, mentoring, and role models. Add to that political instability, racial abuse, health epidemics - and the Sub-Saharan region was left behind compared to the rest of the world in terms of development goals.
While the world seemed to be progressing steadily towards the goal of 100% electrification as part of UN SDG7 of affordable and clean energy, the progress was reversed to a certain extent by the Covid pandemic in 2020-21. The shift in government priorities, supply chain disruptions, and social distancing measures slowed progress in decentralized energy access areas. According to some experts in 2022, it would have taken approximately $35 billion USD to be spent annually till 2030 to ensure universal access to electricity alongside clean cooking.
The Covid-19 pandemic started to go down by end of 2024 when it became apparent to governments and agencies (like the UN) that SDG7 was at threat of being met by 2030, if not acted upon quickly and swiftly. Not only was it important to meet this goal to ensure basic equity but to also meet climate goals with everyone getting access to clean cooking energy. Investment started flowing in from World Bank, IMF, Nonprofits, CSR Foundations. Companies jumped in, with projects that offered great potential to expand their customer base and be at the forefront of a new market. The new projects aimed not only on increasing grid-connected generation of electricity from renewables but also towards bringing down costs of small-scale solar photovoltaic systems. These stand-alone systems could act as mini-grids and were the key in solving the challenge of universal access to affordable electricity to millions in a decentralized way.
The implementation started in 2025, across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Niger – 7 countries with almost 50% of the global population without access to electricity. Women were chosen to manage the projects, as the main workforce available at non-urban areas, and it was very much in line with the equity goals. The projects saw the highest reduction in the number of people yet to be covered by electricity in one single year. By 2027 the number was down to 250 million. The case studies from these projects and evidence of impact were being taken to other countries and governments to ensure 100% electrification by 2030.
The electrification mini-grids not only brought light to many households, but the project also saw trickle-down effects in other areas as well for these countries. There was a drastic reduction in crime, both on the streets as well inside households. The number of reported physical abuse cases against women went down along with other criminal cases. Now with these households having electricity, there was a movement by local and international NGOs to provide these households with access to basic smartphones and the internet. This meant that women, men, and children in these households could now go to school safely, access the internet, read at night, and have some access to blended learning models as well.
With light came not only the interest in learning, but it also brought the possibility to access information, to improve safety in remote locations, and to study during the night after a workday. With women leading the field in agriculture and in the mini-grids, they oversaw the possibility to transform their lives and their family, found new ways to capitalize the crops, accessed technologies to improve productivity. New possibilities were at their hands with more information and education, and now poor communities are led by women and connected to the world to build new futures.
The project also created job opportunities for the local people in the renewable energy sector. To minimize costs and keep the project within budget, local people were recruited and trained. Women were chosen as ambassadors of the mini-grid program in their villages and districts to promote equality and given the ambition of the program to meet the SDG7. They would not only promote the benefits of the same but also help implement and repair mini-grid systems in other households. It sparked other women’s and girls’ interest in electricity, automation, and technology and they started to look after improving their skills set. This created a win-win scenario for all the stakeholders, but mostly to the communities, with a reduction of violence indexes, more education, new job opportunities, and an increase in the average bringing a better quality of life.
In 2028 the mini-grid solar projects were scaled to other countries which still had populations not connected with electricity. Parallelly there was a movement to promote the use of solar and induction cookers to ensure clean energy used for cooking. While the goal of 100% access to affordable electrification could be almost met by 2030 with 99.3% population now having covered by it.
In 2030, the world was an almost equal place with electricity serving as a great equalizer for the 10% of the world population which was living in darkness as of 2021. The access to affordable electricity not only brought literal light into their homes but also access to technology, information, education, and a better chance to be able to work for a sustainable livelihood. Light brings brighter futures!
Additional Sources
https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/access-to-electricity
https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity
https://aweap.africa/aweap-introduction/
https://borgenproject.org/women-in-africans-energy-sector/
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