While the vast majority of the world’s population has access to electricity, 571.2 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not. At the same time, to meet interconnected climate goals, reliance on traditional energy sources needs to be reduced in favor of renewable and efficient energy. Recognizing these challenges, the 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) calls for the international community to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
SDG 7 affects all countries, from high- to low-income. As a result, we have recently seen unprecedented investments in the energy sector, such as Mission 300, which aims to provide electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. Knowing what works to support energy access, efficiency, and the use of renewables is more critical than ever.
What do we know—Energy access?
If we first look at energy access, knowing what works is challenging. A soon-to-be-published 3ie systematic review focusing on the impact of off-grid technologies on energy, climate and socio-economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, produced in collaboration with Sustainable Energy for All, found that:
- Providing off-grid technologies such as solar home systems, for free or through financial subsidies, can have a small impact on energy access outcomes.
- Providing financial subsidies for off-grid technologies led to reductions in energy expenditure and traditional energy use, indicating uptake of renewable technologies. Providing subsidies, as opposed to providing systems for free, can lead to greater feelings of ownership amongst participants, leading to increased use.
- Providing information on how to use and maintain technologies allowed participants to continue using them effectively once programs had ended, leading to reductions in energy expenditures and traditional energy use, indicating uptake of renewable technologies.
With these findings in mind, implementers aiming to provide electricity access to rural populations far from the central grid should incorporate additional components that help support and incentivize technology usage, leading to modern energy access. Information, specifically on the beneficial impacts of utilizing off-grid technologies and how to use and maintain them, is one component that could lead to increased use.
What do we know—Renewable energy production and use?
To increase the share of renewables used, many programs have been implemented that aim to move households away from traditional energy sources. A 3ie evidence gap map on SDG 7 that included 668 impact evaluations found evidence across the three SDG 7 targets was evenly distributed, with increasing the share of renewables being the most commonly evaluated.
Source: Gonzalez Parrao et al. (2024)
Here, interventions commonly focused on two areas: 1) the use of renewable energy in providing electrification to rural areas (the subject of the systematic review discussed above); and 2) the upgrading of traditional biomass cookstoves for those that run on modern renewable energy sources.
Commonly evaluated as part of the health literature, studies on the impact of upgrading traditional cookstoves often measured indoor climatic outcomes as well as health markers. Directly providing households with cookstoves which run on modern renewables can lead to improved indoor air quality, according to two systematic reviews (Quansah et al., 2017; Thakur et al., 2018). However, due to the different ways health outcomes have been measured, it is difficult to ascertain the potential impact these interventions have across different contexts and age ranges.
What do we know—Energy efficiency?
Finally, energy efficiency has been a focus primarily in countries with the highest energy access rates. Efficiency has included not only upgrading energy products but also behavioral change interventions aimed at helping energy consumers reduce their consumption. Interventions providing information through smart meters seek to change consumers' behavior, putting the onus on individuals rather than organizations or businesses. While smart meters could prove to be an effective tool, the current limited evidence base for L&MICs highlights they alone may not be enough. A study in China found that smart meters were a less effective tool at reducing energy use than regularly providing participants with easy to understand energy bills, while a study in Vietnam found that providing SMS messages to participants based on their smart meter readings was effective at reducing consumption. Countries increasing their energy access rates should consider embedding efficiency within their rollout programs to meet multiple SDG 7 targets, ensuring that any program focusing on providing consumption feedback to consumers does so in a clear and simple manner.
While we are not on track for SDG 7, there are some reasons to be optimistic. Alongside clear investments into the most pressing deficits, there is a large evidence base on which to generate policy recommendations. With our current understanding of the evidence base around SDG 7, we believe actors in this sector should continue to fund synthesis work to make sense of a significant and recent evidence base that we know exists. We also believe it is important to implement innovative programs that are evaluable, so they can directly and credibly contribute to the evidence base, focused on all three targets: access, renewables, and efficiency.
