IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v123y2018icp482-493.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Success and failure in the political economy of solar electrification: Lessons from World Bank Solar Home System (SHS) projects in Sri Lanka and Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Sovacool, Benjamin K.

Abstract

This study contrasts two national solar home system (SHS) programs that relied on the same World Bank approach, but reached dramatically different results. The Energy Services Delivery Project (ESDP) in Sri Lanka was an exemplary renewable energy access program, successfully installing 21,000 off-grid SHSs alongside grid-connected mini-hydro capacity and off-grid village hydroelectric systems. It reached all of its targets ahead of schedule and below cost. By contrast, the Indonesia Solar Home System Project (ISHSP), which ran from 1997 to 2003, sought to reach one million rural Indonesians through the sales and installation of 200,000 SHSs. However, by project closing in 2003, less than five percent of the original sales target, or only 8054 units, had been installed. The ESDP and ISHSP were the World Bank's first foray into a “market-based renewable energy services provision model.” Based on original research interviews and field observation, the article finds that contrasting the two programs—one a success, the other a failure—offers lessons for energy and development practitioners, namely that effective programs are those that select appropriate technology, often with input from households themselves; they promote community participation and ownership; and they have robust marketing, demonstration, and promotion activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2018. "Success and failure in the political economy of solar electrification: Lessons from World Bank Solar Home System (SHS) projects in Sri Lanka and Indonesia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 482-493.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:123:y:2018:i:c:p:482-493
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.09.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518306293
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.09.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martinot, E. & Cabraal, A. & Mathur, S., 2001. "World Bank/GEF solar home system projects: experiences and lessons learned 1993-2000," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 39-57, March.
    2. Chaurey, Akanksha & Krithika, P.R. & Palit, Debajit & Rakesh, Smita & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2012. "New partnerships and business models for facilitating energy access," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(S1), pages 48-55.
    3. World Bank, 2015. "The World Bank Annual Report 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22550.
    4. Miller, Damian & Hope, Chris, 2000. "Learning to lend for off-grid solar power: policy lessons from World Bank loans to India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 87-105, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amin, Sakib Bin & Chowdhury, Mainul Islam & Jamasb, Tooraj & Khan, Farhan & Nepal, Rabindra, 2023. "Green Energy Finance and Gender Disparity: The Case of Mountain Areas in Bangladesh," Working Papers 2-2023, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    2. Setyawati, Dinita, 2020. "Analysis of perceptions towards the rooftop photovoltaic solar system policy in Indonesia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Nurwidiana Nurwidiana & Bertha Maya Sopha & Adhika Widyaparaga, 2022. "Simulating Socio-Technical Transitions of Photovoltaics Using Empirically Based Hybrid Simulation-Optimization Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, April.
    4. Tsiaras, Evangelos & Papadopoulos, Demetrios N. & Antonopoulos, Constantinos N. & Papadakis, Vagelis G. & Coutelieris, Frank A., 2020. "Planning and assessment of an off-grid power supply system for small settlements," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1271-1281.
    5. Davide Mazzoni, 2019. "Digitalization for Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa : Challenges, Opportunities and Potential Business Models," Working Papers 2019.02, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    6. Butera, Federico Maria & Caputo, Paola & Adhikari, Rajendra Singh & Mele, Renata, 2019. "Energy access in informal settlements. Results of a wide on site survey in Rio De Janeiro," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Thomas, P.J.M. & Sandwell, P. & Williamson, S.J. & Harper, P.W., 2021. "A PESTLE analysis of solar home systems in refugee camps in Rwanda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Jiang, Wenyin & Liu, Can & Sun, Zhigang, 2023. "Promoting developments of hydrogen production from renewable energy and hydrogen energy vehicles in China analyzing a public-private partnership cooperation scheme based on evolutionary game theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PB).
    9. Andrea A. Eras-Almeida & Miguel Fernández & Julio Eisman & José G. Martín & Estefanía Caamaño & Miguel A. Egido-Aguilera, 2019. "Lessons Learned from Rural Electrification Experiences with Third Generation Solar Home Systems in Latin America: Case Studies in Peru, Mexico, and Bolivia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Leduchowicz-Municio, A. & Juanpera, M. & Domenech, B. & Ferrer-Martí, L. & Udaeta, M.E.M. & Gimenes, A.L.V., 2024. "Field-driven multi-criteria sustainability assessment of last-mile rural electrification in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    11. Nathanael Ojong, 2021. "Solar Home Systems in South Asia: Examining Adoption, Energy Consumption, and Social Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Diouf, Boucar, 2016. "Tontine: Self-help financing for solar home systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 166-174.
    2. Elizabeth Baldwin & Jennifer N. Brass & Sanya Carley & Lauren M. MacLean, 2015. "Electrification and rural development: issues of scale in distributed generation," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 196-211, March.
    3. Nepal, Rabindra, 2012. "Roles and potentials of renewable energy in less-developed economies: The case of Nepal," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 2200-2206.
    4. Chaurey, Akanksha & Kandpal, Tara Chandra, 2010. "Assessment and evaluation of PV based decentralized rural electrification: An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2266-2278, October.
    5. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & D'Agostino, Anthony L. & Jain Bambawale, Malavika, 2011. "The socio-technical barriers to Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Papua New Guinea: "Choosing pigs, prostitutes, and poker chips over panels"," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1532-1542, March.
    6. Bhuiyan, Muhammad Faress & Ivlevs, Artjoms, 2019. "Micro-entrepreneurship and subjective well-being: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 625-645.
    7. Janina Isabel Steinert & Lucie Dale Cluver & G. J. Melendez-Torres & Sebastian Vollmer, 2018. "One Size Fits All? The Validity of a Composite Poverty Index Across Urban and Rural Households in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 51-72, February.
    8. Ahmed Moustapha Mfokeu & Elie Virgile Chrysostome & Jean-Pierre Gueyie & Olivier Ebenezer Mun Ngapna, 2023. "Consumer Motivation behind the Use of Ecological Charcoal in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, January.
    9. Neij, Lena & Heiskanen, Eva & Strupeit, Lars, 2017. "The deployment of new energy technologies and the need for local learning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 274-283.
    10. Ofori, Isaac K. & Figari, Francesco, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Forthcomi, pages 1-1.
    11. Yuting Sun & Shu-Nung Yao, 2022. "Sustainability Trade-Offs in Media Coverage of Poverty Alleviation: A Content-Based Spatiotemporal Analysis in China’s Provinces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    12. Elizabeth N. Ruppert Bulmer & Samantha Maria Watson & David Keith Santos De Padua, 2017. "Paraguay Jobs Diagnostic [Empleos Paraguay diagnóstico]," World Bank Publications - Reports 28265, The World Bank Group.
    13. Hirmer, Stephanie & Cruickshank, Heather, 2014. "Making the deployment of pico-PV more sustainable along the value chain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 401-411.
    14. Chaurey, A. & Kandpal, T.C., 2010. "A techno-economic comparison of rural electrification based on solar home systems and PV microgrids," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 3118-3129, June.
    15. Komatsu, Satoru & Kaneko, Shinji & Ghosh, Partha Pratim & Morinaga, Akane, 2013. "Determinants of user satisfaction with solar home systems in rural Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 52-58.
    16. Harrington, Elise & Athavankar, Ameya & Hsu, David, 2020. "Variation in rural household energy transitions for basic lighting in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Vetlov, Igor & Ferdinandusse, Marien & de Jong, Jasper & Funda, Josip, 2017. "The effect of public investment in Europe: a model-based assessment," Working Paper Series 2021, European Central Bank.
    18. Punia Sindhu, Sonal & Nehra, Vijay & Luthra, Sunil, 2016. "Recognition and prioritization of challenges in growth of solar energy using analytical hierarchy process: Indian outlook," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 332-348.
    19. Adeyinka Adewale, 2020. "A Model of Virtuous Leadership in Africa: Case Study of a Nigerian Firm," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(4), pages 749-762, February.
    20. Koomson, Isaac & Orkoh, Emmanuel & Ahmad, Shabbir, 2023. "Non-farm entrepreneurship, caste, and energy poverty in rural India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:123:y:2018:i:c:p:482-493. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.