This publication showcase how digital solutions can transform energy access, launched at Intersolar 2024. This comprehensive knowledge product draws from workshops, research, and interviews with EnDev projects and industry experts. It's designed for practitioners and partners interested in our experiences, lessons learned, and insights into digital solutions for energy projects.
The publication explores the scalability of digital solutions and their potential to drive significant growth in the energy access sector. It introduces the concept of an “ecosystem of digital applications for scaling energy access,” categorised as:
📊 Planning and Developing Energy Projects
💳 Financing and Payments
📚 Learning and Capacity Building
📈 Stimulating Demand
🌐 Market Platforms
⚙️ Operations Management
For each category the report examines the potential of digital technologies to accelerate energy access, identifies barriers, they help to overcome and risks, they bring along, and provides recommendations for leveraging digital solutions to achieve sustainable development goals. Overall, more than 50 digital tools were mapped and analysed. This mapping of digital tools (Section 2) forms the central part of the knowledge product; it can be used as a “toolbox” where the reader can pick out (or get inspired) by digital solutions that are already in operation in other projects worldwide and that might best suit the current challenges of his/her project. The digital solutions showcased are compared and qualitatively evaluated in overview tables. Additionally, readers can access further information through online links and in the Annex (Section 5), which offers detailed insights into individual project experiences, including contact information of implementation partners that might help with further information, if needed.
Scaling up through digitalisation is crucial for reducing costs, minimising risks, and improving sustainability. By using digital platforms to streamline operations, gather data, and enhance customer service, we make energy access more efficient and affordable.
