The Mini-Grid Workshop Report
Philipp Blechinger, José María Ordeix
Mini-grid solutions have been identified as one of the most promising method of improving access to electricity in rural areas, and have been hailed by the United Nations as the missing link in providing access to energy for all. The flexible nature of installations, as well as the tail end of generation potential inherent within these solutions, offers an interesting bottom-up approach to rural electrification. Nevertheless, there are a number of challenges that still need to be addressed in order to ensure the sustainable, large-scale implementation of these systems in developing countries.
This workshop brought together 39 experts from the practical and academic sides of this topic in order to explore the current issues, identify barriers, and suggest possible solutions regarding mini-grids. It took place on February 27th 2013 at the Reiner Lemoine Institut in Berlin within the framework of the 2nd International Conference on “Micro Perspectives for Decentralized Energy Supply” (MES 2013).
In different working groups the participants discussed questions concerning the electricity demand and development, financing and features of different operation models. In the document at hand, the results of the different working groups will be presented.