The document discusses the SmartVillages concept and initiative. It makes the following key points:
1. Over 1 billion people lack access to electricity, mainly in rural communities, and 3 billion rely on traditional fuels that cause indoor air pollution. The SmartVillages initiative aims to provide universal access to electricity by 2030 through mini-grids and home-based solutions.
2. Access to sustainable energy can catalyze development by enabling education, local businesses, health, welfare, food security, and democratic engagement.
3. The SmartVillages initiative is a partnership between science academies, expert organizations, and others to address rural energy challenges through workshops, policy advice, and identifying barriers and solutions.
4. Upcoming
2. The Scale of the Energy Challenge
1.3 billion people without access to electricity,
mainly in rural communities
3 billion people use traditional fuels for household
energy
1.5 million people die each year from indoor air
pollution caused by traditional fuels
Oil prices in real terms are 5 x what they were
when OECD countries were at a similar stage of
development
3. Universal access to electricity by 2030
IEAWorld Energy Outlook: new
connections in rural areas
30% grid extension
70% from micro-grids and home-
based approaches
4. Energy as a catalyst for development
Sustainable
energy
access for
development
Education
Local
business
Health &
welfare
Democratic
engagement
Food
security
5. Focus: mini/micro-grid and home-based
approaches
Policy advice: an insightful, ‘view from the
frontline’ of the challenges of village energy
provision for development, and how they can
be overcome
Workshops: bringing together the key players:
scientists, entrepreneurs, villagers, NGO’s, financers,
regulators and policy makers etc:
• What are the barriers?
• How can they be overcome?
• What messages to funders and policy makers?
The SmartVillages Initiative
8. Scoping study
• Village-level energy services inTanzania, Ghana and India
• University of Oxford study team
• Published January 2013: www.e4sv.org
Extensive round of meetings
• Europe: European Commission and Parliament
• UN: UNIDO and UNEP
• Other stakeholders
Forward look workshop
• Cambridge, January 2014
• Possible game changing scientific/technical developments over
next 10-20 years
Smart villages: work to date
10. Follow up activities:
Dissemination of
workshop report
Preparation of briefs and
briefing meetings
Training courses and
master classes
Entrepreneurial
competitions
Final event with key
stakeholders
12. A key aim: identify framework conditions to:
• foster entrepreneurial activities
• maximise leverage of public sector funding
An underlying premise: maximise social benefit and
development impact:
• integrate energy access with other development initiatives
• take a community level approach
An important concern:
• to catalyse progression through the various levels of energy access
The SmartVillages Initiative
14. Education and health services
• ICT connectivity: distance learning and world’s knowledge base
• Modern health services and tele-medicine
Through ICT connectivity, participate in governance processes
• At local, regional and national levels
• Creating smart communities with strong rural and urban linkages
Foster entrepreneurship in provision and use of energy services
• Capture more of the agricultural value chain
• Create new businesses
Building more resilient communities better able to respond to shocks
• Clean water and sanitation
• Affordable and nutritious food
Smart villages: some key features
All enabled by access to energy
16. ‘Counter-urbanisation’ in industrialised countries
Lifestyle and family
preferences
Urban-level amenities
in rural villages
Reduction in
information,
communication and
transportation barriers
New economic
opportunities
17. What might they look like?
What is an appropriate level of ambition?
How can that ambition be achieved?
Smart villages in East Africa