The global off-grid solar industry has grown into an annual market of 1.75 billion U.S. dollars, providing lighting and other energy services to 420 million users, said a World Bank report.
According to the 2020 Off-Grid Solar Market Trends report released on Tuesday, between 2017 to 2019, revenues from the industry grew rapidly at 30 percent annually, while sales volumes grew at ten percent annually.
The findings show that the global potential of the off-grid solar market remains substantial, with 840 million people without electricity access, over one billion connected to an unreliable grid while over 70 million farmers could leverage the solar products for productive use.
The report notes that with 840 million people still lacking access to electricity, the growth of the off-grid solar industry is critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goal for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030.
According to the report, the sector would need an additional boost of up to 11 billion dollars in financing and more specifically, the sector would need to grow at an accelerated rate of 13 percent, with up to 7.7 billion dollars in external investment to companies and up to 3.4 billion dollars of public funding as subsidies to bridge the affordability gap. Enditem
