Page 128 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Renewable Energy: Scaling Deployment in the United States Chapter j 5 105

These two simple exercises clearly highlight five areas for prioritization:
1. Overarching national energy policy that establishes national commitments
to electrification
2. Rural electrification plans or programs that integrate DRE as an energy
access solution
3. Technical regulation that streamlines licensing procedures for DRE service
providers, the first barrier to market entry
4. The adoption of internationally recognized quality standards for DRE
products and services
5. Financial policy that reduces or eliminates import duties and tariffs on
DRE-related products and that supports the availability of local finance
through loans and grants and microfinance
The establishment of energy access targets and incorporation of DRE into
planning are identified as the two principal national policy “building blocks,”
critical for laying the foundation of an enabling environment. The World
Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program has recently defined
progressive tiers of energy access (the Multi-tier Framework) based on
capacity, duration, reliability, quality, and affordability. This helps identify
what kinds of intervention are appropriate for moving users to higher tiers,
informs investment, and can help countries to set appropriate and realistic
energy access and DRE targets and to track that progress more granularly.
It is important to note that policy itself is not a singular solution, and policy
design must be matched by implementation. Beyond establishment, policy is
often poorly implemented in the country due to limited government capacity;
lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities of government ministries,
departments, and agencies; and lack of political will from leaders to imple-
ment or enforce policy.
In particular, lack of access to finance largely inhibits growth of the DRE
sector. Estimates range for the total annual investment necessary, but ac-
cording to the IEA, $23 million investment in DRE is needed annually to
achieve universal energy access goals [17]. Yet the World Bank finds that only
a miniscule amount of international financing commitments e 1%, or $200
million a year e now goes to DRE technologies [18]. DRE companies and
providers need a range of financing instruments e loans, capital, grants,
subsidies and consumer finance. In the next section we describe the case of
Sierra Leone, an LEA country that has excelled at policy implementation
resulting in the rapid growth of a thriving DRE sector.

FROM THE BOTTOM UP: THE SIERRA LEONE SUCCESS
STORY

Sierra Leone is one of the least electrified countries in the world (Fig. 5.4). The
WEO estimates that 5 million of its 7 million population are without electricity