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Rural areas are one of the effective regions in economy and self-sufficiency field especially in agricultural and livestock section. Planning in the rural section and the effort in solving the problems of farmers lead to increase their interest in farming and manufacturing in the villages and decrease their migration to the cities and metropolitans. Therefore, the present study aimed at feasibility of electricity to a rural household in Iran using off-grid solar-based hybrid system.

In renewable energy projects, a successful evaluation requires suitable criteria so that one can properly analyze the operational behavior of all feasible scenarios. In the present paper, HOMER software has been used for this purpose for a village with no access to electricity grid (Bar Aftab-e Jalaleh, Iran). Due to drastic fluctuation of fossil fuel prices and varied solar radiations in various years because of climate change, sensitivity analysis has been performed using HOMER.

In the optimum status economically, 70% of needed energy is provided by solar cells at the price 0.792 $/kWh. The comparison between the optimum condition economically and the condition that only use fossil fuels revealed that the return on investment will occur after less than 2 years and have remained profitable over 23 years.

The authors hope that the results of this study can be used in planning of the authorities to realize the interests of people in this village.

According to the surveys, despite Iran being the first country in terms of providing solar power to the villages, so far no socio-economic-environmental assessment has been done for a solar cell-based micro-grid in an off-grid mode for a remote village that is deprived of electricity from a national electricity grid. In addition, for the first time in Iran, the effect of the fuel price and solar radiation parameters variability on the performance of system have been investigated.

Access to high-speed Internet is essential for full and consequential participation in the civic, economic, and education systems of modern life. Yet 30% of Californians continue to lack “meaningful Internet access” at home. This digital divide is worse among already disadvantaged communities and prevents rural, lower-income, and disabled individuals from fully participating in the civic, economic, and education systems of life in 2018. This chapter establishes the magnitude of the digital divide, examines the factors that contribute to the Divide, and looks at which groups are most affected. Successful government programs that invested in utility infrastructure and adoption, such as the Rural Electrification Act, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the California Advanced Services Fund, are examined to provide a foundation for broadband specific policy recommendations. The chapter sets up a framework for policy recommendations by segmenting the population based upon the concepts of material and motivational access and establishing meaningful Internet access as the goal for policy-makers. The chapter puts forth a number of specific policy recommendations to address the technological disparity and prevent it from furthering the economic and educational divides.

This study aims to present preliminary results from an integrated evaluation of electricity supply systems for rural areas using renewable energy technologies by means of a multi‐objective decision making method

Goal programming is applied to obtain the optimal system configuration meeting the electricity demand, based on the location's resource availability and taking diesel generation as the alternative of reference. The performance of the system is evaluated through four attributes: electricity generation costs, employment and two environmental impacts (CO₂ emissions and land use). The model is designed for isolated rural area belonging to the non‐interconnected zones of Colombia.

Application of the method showed that biomass conversion technology has the highest potential and that renewable energy systems offer better performance than diesel generation. Reductions of more than 10 percent in unit electricity costs, land use rates and CO₂ emissions can be achieved.

Inclusion of additional attributes and sensitivity analysis are matters of future research.

The methodology used in this study is an alternative means to perform evaluation of electricity supply systems integrating several aspects of technology and which is flexible enough so as to enable the inclusion of a wider scope of interests towards energy access targets.

This study aims to focus on the nexus between off-grid systems and impacts on islands and remote villages in Ghana by investigating the sources and cost of energy, willingness to pay for electricity and impacts of off-grid energy on the local economy, education, health, social activities, the environment and migration.

Data were obtained from 110 households; heterogeneous impact analysis of off-grid technologies, average treatment effect by inverse probability weights (IPW) and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) models were used to analyse the data.

The sources of energy are gas, kerosene, wood fuel and dry-cell battery. All households in communities with neither electricity nor off-grid system were willing to pay for electricity. Households without off-grid systems (US$8.1) were willing to pay higher amounts per month for electricity. The off-grid technologies improve the local economy, social activities, security, the environment, education and health as well as reduce out-migration.

Most of the literature on mini-grid/off-grid systems have been from the engineering and the technical perspective, with a few on the socioeconomic impacts of the systems and consumer engagements. Besides, methods including descriptive statistics, energy technology sustainability framework and qualitative analysis were used in these studies. Nevertheless, the authors used a more rigorous method of the doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment model and a heterogeneous method to model the impact analysis of off-grid systems.

The purpose of this research paper is to demonstrate that the success of technology transfer projects depends, among others, also on the projects' conformity with the institutional development in the concerned country.

The paper focuses on a study of two different user models of solar home systems in two different African countries with different institutional development, Zambia and Kenya. In the studied countries the solar home systems and thus home electricity are available to the users under different circumstances and terms. These circumstances and terms are closely connected to the functioning of the economic and judicial institutions in the mentioned countries.

The paper illustrates that, while the technology transfer project based on a “fee‐for‐service” solar home system was successful in Zambia, it would be unsuccessful in Kenya. And contrariwise, the technology transfer project based on a “market” solar home system was successful in Kenya, but would be unsuccessful in Zambia. The reasons for this difference are based on the different institutional development in the mentioned countries.

The paper illustrates that the success of a technology transfer project is dependent not only on emission reductions, but also on the accessibility of the project to the targeted user. The latter requirement, however, depends on how well the project takes into account which institutions are developed in a country and how well they function.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, if, similar to other management initiatives, new public management may be a repackaging of already existent concepts. Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s as an innovative way to manage public sector elements, new public management affected both the ownership and management of public sector companies, services and utilities. Minimal research has been undertaken previously, using historic archival sources of public entities, to explore if elements of the concept originated prior to the 1970s.

This research draws on archival records from a publicly owned electricity company, covering about three decades from 1946, during which a large investment project was undertaken by the company. This study draws on key tenets of what is today called new public management, examining prior research to ascertain if similar elements were present in the case organisation.

When reviewing the progress of the investment project, many of the key elements of new public management emerged, even during the early part of the project.

There is little historical research on the origins of new public management, and the findings here suggest that it may not be entirely new. While this does not at all invalidate existing research, it suggests that new public management may be to an extent a repackaging of previously extant techniques. This opens up possibilities for future historic research in terms of how and why it was repackaged, and also what was/was not repackaged.

This study aims to examine the impact of socioeconomic factors on electricity usage and assess the feasibility of implementing a mini-grid system in Kasangazi, Malawi. The primary aim is to understand the community’s current and potential utilisation of electrical equipment.

A mixed-methods approach was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Information was gathered through structured questionnaires, and energy audits were conducted among 87 randomly selected households from 28 Kasangazi communities. Data analysis relied on descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS version 28.

The study indicates that every household in Kasangazi uses non-renewable energy sources: 60 households use disposable batteries for lighting, 20 for radios and all use firewood, freely sourced from local forests, for cooking and heating water. The study shows that firewood is the community’s preferred energy source, illustrating the challenges faced in the fight against deforestation. Most household income comes from farming, with smaller contributions from businesses, employment and family remittances. Access to higher education is scarce, with only one out of 349 family members receiving tertiary education. Despite the constraints of low education levels and income, there is a demand for larger electrical appliances such as stoves and refrigerators. This underscores the need for mini-grid solutions, even in less technologically advanced, agriculture-dependent communities.

This study underscores that in Sub-Saharan Africa, factors like household size, income and education levels do not significantly influence the electricity demand but should be taken as part of the fundamental human rights. Rural populations express a desire for electricity due to the convenience it offers, particularly for appliances like refrigerators and stoves. Mini-grids emerge as a viable alternative in regions where grid electricity provision is challenging. It is concluded from this paper that the issue of using renewable energy should not only be taken for environmental preservation but also to promote energy access, augmenting efforts in supplying electricity to the remotest parts of the country.