Mini-grids—small power stations usually supplying rural communities—are not new. But the drop in solar technology costs over a decade has prompted a growth in clean energy mini-grids, with rural Africa poised to benefit the most
Sabon Gida is one community in a private-public initiative involving the World Bank and US-based mini-grid maker Husk Power Systems with the country's Rural Electrification Agency. Image: Kola Sulaimon / AFP©
Working as a nurse in her rural Nigerian village, Andat Datau faced more than her share of challenges. But delivering babies by torchlight was always hard.
Off-grid for years, her Sabon Gida village relied on diesel generators or lamps and, like millions of other Africans, Datau often got no light at all.
But a year ago, Datau's village in north central Nasarawa State hooked up to a solar-powered mini-grid supplying half of her community's households and most businesses with almost constant electricity.