Mini-Grids are on the Charge in a Bid to Electrify Rural Africa

The potential for a 'new' type of grid to be built in Africa, as the region is not nearly as entrenched into legacy infrastructure as the rest of the world, is a great opportunity. Do you think we're on the right path now, Fiona? And will the lessons learned when that's (hopefully) done in Africa be able to be exported back to the parts of the world that are stuck with their existing grid structures?

Electrifying rural communities will bring deserved benefits to these areas the developed world has enjoyed for almost two centuries.

Using microgrids to do it, from an environmental perspective, would be catastrophic.

Here's why: when critics note they're being powered exclusively by diesel generators. Shell and other global oil concerns will erect a few useless solar arrays or wind turbines in the jungle and pronounce the microgrids "renewable". After discovering they're not, the same mindless critics, devoid of forethought or engineering expertise, will work to connect those microgrids together - to build an interconnected grid starting from the outer edges - and belatedly realize their doomed networks made as much sense as building any network starting at the outer edges (none). As climate-induced fires rage, the communities will run out of diesel fuel, and either starve or succumb to armed conflict.

If climate change continues to be worse than you thought it possibly could be, it won't be because there weren't answers - it will be because idealistic simpletons were making the decisions that mattered.

In case there is an interest - there is a fledgling Professional LinkedIN Group :-

Africa Mini-grid Developers Association ( AMDA ) with > 200 members

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8356812