In sub-Saharan Africa, hundreds of millions of people (about 65% of the population) live in communities that lack access to electricity. As a key enabler of economic development, the lack of energy access stymies broader efforts to grow local wealth and improve quality of life. Understandably, to address this need, African governments, development partners, and others are working tirelessly to increase energy access on the continent.

A new Rocky Mountain Institute report, Minigrids in the Money: Six Ways to Reduce Minigrid Costs by 60% for Rural Electrification, describes the barriers that minigrids currently face in reaching this potential and lays out a prospective pathway to address them and to bring minigrids to scale. The promise of minigrids is illustrated by looking at two typical and neighboring off-grid communities in central Nigeria.