How much can an increased solar power production actually benefit rural, energy-poor areas of Africa?

Abstract

There has been a surge in solar power in the last decade which has opened up possibilities for rural, energy poor areas to become electrified. Access to electricity is fundamental for economic growth and human prosperity but still around one billion people lack access to electricity, where the majority is located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional fuels generate toxic emissions which is the cause of approximately 3.5 million premature deaths annually, women and children being the most exposed on a local level. In this thesis we estimate if there is an effect of solar power production on access to electricity and find that an increased solar power production has a significant effect on access to electricity and access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking. We use fixed effects panel data between 2000 and 2014 for all African countries, and we find larger effects in rural areas and underdeveloped countries. In the light of our results we discuss the validity of the Environmental Kuznets curve and find that the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation could potentially be weaker. Despite renewable energy, most notably solar power, being a widely researched topic, further research is needed to be able to claim causality between solar power production and access to electricity in underdeveloped areas.