Renewable electricity is cheaper than ever. While the West got rich on coal and oil, some of the world's poorest countries are banking on solar, wind and water instead.
The thing is, developing countries will always see a bigger impact from newer technology because they are developing and so are building up base capacity. In the US we already have a lot of base load that already exists, so new power is to either increase overall load or to replace. Both of those things typically happen slower than new build out.
Also solar is more decentralized by it’s nature so you don’t need to deploy all the infrastructure normally expected. A village doesn’t need to be connected to a larger grid to receive power. Heck, a lot of individual homes can manage if the owners can afford panels.
Batteries are super cheap now. Even in US, $100/kwh at 2400kwh+ bms/connections pack range. Means you can oversize it for half average charge/discharge utilization and pay just 2c/kwh. solar installation on homes in China is 70c/watt, and with no tariffs and even cheaper local labour, that can offset shipping costs. So 6kw solar and 20kwh battery costs $6200. That’s a $17.22 monthly electric bill that is inflation proof.
How on earth do you go from saying it’s $100 per kwh to paying $0.02 per kwh? I don’t think anyone would accept a 500 year time to pay off their initial investment.
Doubling the budget is doubly the monthly electric bill. An EV getting a free monthly fuel bill 10 months of the year, is also a winter resilience device to charge the home with a trip to commercial charger. Majority of low income countries, topic, are concentrated around equator and lower seasonal variation. Rainy season in summer often means more winter than summer production.
Whoops. I got it wrong, sorry. If we follow Victron’s recommendations (4.8 kWh backup for 1.5 kWp generation) than for 6 kWp the LiIon backup (AC-coupled) would be pretty exactly 20 kWh. So your numbers are perfectly balanced.
The problem with just scaling up is that in winter months I can easily see 1/20th to 1/40th of PV nameplate during daytime, and such conditions can persist for more than a month. So without the grid as a backup the only option is diesel generation backup, or going entirely without any major power drain.
For low-consumer countries in the tropics the equation is much easier, since they’re consuming less than Westerners in general.
A model for Canada, does require enough solar for just 1 hour total sun to meet electricity needs (for winter). Backup heating necessary, but hydronic and heat pump (reversible heat/AC split units per room) is good use of fall solar to charge up a hot water reservoir that also gets recharged on sunny winter days. An EV that can charge the home counts as a backup heat source. This can mean much higher solar production for 9-10 months than you can use, but also means profitable bitcoin mining or GPU rental for that period. And/or free EV charging, hottub/pool heating, or other energy sinks that become free, off grid.
Canada/Ontario has corrupt electricity system, with $50/month flat fee. So a $50-$100/month equivalent (5x above investment) off grid cost is a better energy opportunity/alternative especially including vehicle fuel savings, but also in new construction heating system cost savings. A fireplace or woodstove may be an arguable quality of life improvement, instead of just a heating appliance.
This is one of those things that no one realizes cause no one draws too much attention to it, but the US hasn’t been slacking on renewables in general - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_States - https://earthenergylog.com/articles/solar-power-statistics-us-2026
The thing is, developing countries will always see a bigger impact from newer technology because they are developing and so are building up base capacity. In the US we already have a lot of base load that already exists, so new power is to either increase overall load or to replace. Both of those things typically happen slower than new build out.
Also solar is more decentralized by it’s nature so you don’t need to deploy all the infrastructure normally expected. A village doesn’t need to be connected to a larger grid to receive power. Heck, a lot of individual homes can manage if the owners can afford panels.
It still needs to be connected to the grid to receive power at night unless you think every village can afford battery storage
Batteries are super cheap now. Even in US, $100/kwh at 2400kwh+ bms/connections pack range. Means you can oversize it for half average charge/discharge utilization and pay just 2c/kwh. solar installation on homes in China is 70c/watt, and with no tariffs and even cheaper local labour, that can offset shipping costs. So 6kw solar and 20kwh battery costs $6200. That’s a $17.22 monthly electric bill that is inflation proof.
LiPh batteries are down to $80 kwhr.
How on earth do you go from saying it’s $100 per kwh to paying $0.02 per kwh? I don’t think anyone would accept a 500 year time to pay off their initial investment.
Still need the grid as in winter months output is low. So 6 kW solar and 20 kWh battery is rather unbalanced.
Doubling the budget is doubly the monthly electric bill. An EV getting a free monthly fuel bill 10 months of the year, is also a winter resilience device to charge the home with a trip to commercial charger. Majority of low income countries, topic, are concentrated around equator and lower seasonal variation. Rainy season in summer often means more winter than summer production.
Whoops. I got it wrong, sorry. If we follow Victron’s recommendations (4.8 kWh backup for 1.5 kWp generation) than for 6 kWp the LiIon backup (AC-coupled) would be pretty exactly 20 kWh. So your numbers are perfectly balanced.
The problem with just scaling up is that in winter months I can easily see 1/20th to 1/40th of PV nameplate during daytime, and such conditions can persist for more than a month. So without the grid as a backup the only option is diesel generation backup, or going entirely without any major power drain.
For low-consumer countries in the tropics the equation is much easier, since they’re consuming less than Westerners in general.
A model for Canada, does require enough solar for just 1 hour total sun to meet electricity needs (for winter). Backup heating necessary, but hydronic and heat pump (reversible heat/AC split units per room) is good use of fall solar to charge up a hot water reservoir that also gets recharged on sunny winter days. An EV that can charge the home counts as a backup heat source. This can mean much higher solar production for 9-10 months than you can use, but also means profitable bitcoin mining or GPU rental for that period. And/or free EV charging, hottub/pool heating, or other energy sinks that become free, off grid.
Canada/Ontario has corrupt electricity system, with $50/month flat fee. So a $50-$100/month equivalent (5x above investment) off grid cost is a better energy opportunity/alternative especially including vehicle fuel savings, but also in new construction heating system cost savings. A fireplace or woodstove may be an arguable quality of life improvement, instead of just a heating appliance.