Overview of mini-grids for rural electrification in Africa

How do African countries differentiate themselves in terms of solar mini-grids for rural electrification? Let’s dive into international databases to catch a glimpse of the continent

If we are to believe the Bloomberg database1, the 15 African countries with the largest number of solar mini-grids2) (including hybrid solar-diesel mini-grids, but excluding solar concentration technologies), are,  in descending order:

  1. Senegal
  2. Mali
  3. Sierra Leone
  4. Tanzania
  5. Kenya
  6. Angola
  7. Madagascar
  8. Nigeria
  9. Burkina Faso
  10. Liberia
  11. Mauritania
  12. Uganda
  13. Rwanda
  14. Democratic Republic of Congo
  15. Zambia

Regulatory frameworks for access to energy based on “clean” energies

How do these 15 countries perform regarding regulatory environment? The World Bank’s Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) provides useful information, including electricity access indicators3. These data were crossed with the Bloomberg Nef’s Climatescope which assesses the attractiveness of each country for clean energy investments, based on 123 indicators4.

Ranking of these fifteen countries regarding regulatory frameworks – based on RISE and Climatescope databases, March 2021

The group of countries “in green” indicates countries considered to have the most favorable regulatory framework for access to energy based on “clean” energies, while the “red” block represents the most unfavorable countries according to the cross-analysis of these international databases. The “orange” group symbolizes countries with an intermediate situation. Angola is breaking away from the aforementioned blocks.

Limits of this classification exercise

Like any exercise based on information and as the GIGO adage reminds us5, the quality of this analysis depends on databases’ own quality. In that sense, relying on these sources of information brings certain epistemological challenges, in particular due to their different nature and methodologies. The discrepancies between the databases also suggest a medium reliability, which was confirmed during interviews with experts in the sector. The information collected nevertheless remains sufficient for a rough and relative typology of countries in terms of mini-grids’ number and regulatory frameworks. In addition, the use of several databases allowed us to triangulate information to list the countries with relatively the most mini-grids without trying to determine their exact number (an extremely time-consuming task and probably impossible given the challenges of collecting and updating on an on-going basis this type of information!). Interviews with experts also helped to contrast this first analysis of international databases.

In my next article, I will share a more detailed analysis of a selection of five countries.

  1. Downloaded in March 10, 2021 []
  2. FERDI and AFSIA databases were also used to triangulate the information in Bloomberg’s list. The World Bank and Club ER databases were requested but without success []
  3. Accessed March 21, 2021 []
  4. Downloaded March 21, 2021 []
  5. “Garbage in, garbage out”: poor quality inputs can only lead to poor quality products []

OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Emilie Etienne (23 août 2021). Overview of mini-grids for rural electrification in Africa. Sustainability in the Global South. Consulté le 30 avril 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/umph


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