Abstract
A growing number of rural African households are using small solar home systems (SHSs) to obtain better access to lighting, television and radio. Various non-governmental organisations, multilateral institutions and international aid agencies have catalysed these markets, partially motivated by a desire to reduce global carbon emissions. This chapter assesses the carbon mitigation potential of African SHSs markets, concluding that direct carbon displacement will be limited. Indirect benefits from helping the global photovoltaics (PV) industry scale up production and bring down costs via the manufacturing experience curve will be larger, but still trivial relative to grid-connected markets. Nonetheless, with aggressive support, by 2025 SHSs could provide cost-effective basic electricity to a substantial share of rural households, and grid-connected PV could make a major contribution to overall electricity needs in Africa.
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