Electricity access remains a significant global challenge, with only incremental progress made to date towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 – access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. The affordability of electricity plays an important role in determining whether households gain and maintain access to electricity. Closing electricity access gaps therefore requires special attention to supporting affordability.
This research examines this issue in-depth, particularly how subsidies can support affordability. It assesses three end-user subsidy programmes – in Ghana, Uganda and Togo – and builds on existing literature regarding the development and implementation of end-user subsidies for solar home systems.
Based on analysis of the three programmes, the brief outlines a set of attributes key to end-user subsidy design and identifies the various methods available to build each component.