This pocket guide is intended as a quick reference to off-grid technologies, policies, and impacts – including stories of successful village energy projects from across the global south. It is published by Smart Villages.

This Impact Note by RWI and Leibniz Institute for Economic Research presents recent research results and policy recommendations regarding electrification strategies for rural Africa in a nutshell.
Effects on income, health and education in newly connected communities are low. Moreover, the poorest households are lacking funds to get connected. This calls for a stronger focus on electrification through low-cost off-grid technologies, which could improve the cost-benefit balance.

This report by GVEP provides an overview of the crowdfunding for energy access market to date. Growing from a little known concept at the beginning of this century to an industry worth over $140 billion globally in 2015, crowdfunding is now ubiquitous. However, crowdfunding for energy access is still a niche market segment, with $3.4 million raised for individuals, charities, NGOs and social enterprises in Africa and Asia in 2015. The off-grid solar sector alone raised in total $276 million in investments across both regions in 2015.

This year’s edition reveals a global energy transition well underway with record new additions on installed renewable energy capacity, rapidly falling costs, and the decoupling of economic growth and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions for the third year running. But despite these positive trends the pace of the transition is not on track to achieve the goals established in the Paris Agreement. The report is published by REN21.

In 2014, the supply of biomass globally has increased to 59.2 EJ – a 2.6% increase compared to 2013. Overall, this accounted for 10.3% of the global energy supply. Biomass supply accounts for three quarters of the total renewable energy supply. Forestry continues to be a key part of biomass supply accounting for 87% of the total biomass supply providing woodfuel, wood industry residues, recovered wood, charcoal etc. Agriculture sector contributes 10% via use of animal byproducts, agricultural byproducts and energy crops.
The report was launched by the World Bioenergy Association.

According to this report by IRENA, in 2016, 9.8 million people had renewable energy jobs. The report shows that solar photovoltaic (PV) was the largest employer in 2016, with 3.1 million jobs — up 12% from 2015 — mainly in China, the United States and India. New wind installations contributed to a 7% increase in global wind employment, raising it up to 1.2 million jobs. Brazil, China, the United States and India also proved to be key bioenergy job markets, with biofuels accounting for 1.7 million jobs, biomass 0.7 million, and biogas 0.3 million.