DELTADev · Integrating energy systems and supply chain optimisation for sustainable development: Decentralised, Energy-Leveraging Transformation of African Development (DELTADev)

Integrating energy systems and supply chain optimisation for sustainable development: Decentralised, Energy-Leveraging Transformation of African Development (DELTADev)

The problem Access to modern forms of energy for all is one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7), and is a critical and well-known enabler of wider socio-economic development across a variety of other SDGs. Yet in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 580 million people still lack access to electricity, over 80% of them live in rural areas. The key question is how access to modern forms of energy can be scaled up in remote rural areas in various different countries in SSA while simultaneously delivering on its synergetic potential for most other SDGs. The significance Despite extensive efforts, current development levels in low-income rural areas in a variety of different countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) pose a fundamental threat to reaching the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). No world region has a lower GDP per capita than SSA, and 90% of all people in extreme poverty are estimated to live in SSA by 2030. The lack of reliable access to electricity is a key barrier for wider rural development in SSA. Efficient water infrastructure, productive commercial activities, health and education facilities, communication systems and domestic appliances all rely on electricity. Rural labour productivity in SSA is growing at less than half the pace of the global average. Over 80% of all rural jobs are vulnerable. The large rural versus urban electricity access inequality in SSA is a symptom of wider rural versus urban divide which drives high urbanisation rates. It is widely accepted that women bear a disproportionate share of the adverse consequences of a lack of electricity access. The objectives The overall objective of this research project was to conceptualise and design off-grid energy-enabled solutions capable of fostering broader sustainable development across multiple SDGs in the context of low-income rural areas in SSA. The project defined three sub-objectives to achieve this main objective, namely (1) developing a modelling framework that places energy systems design within sustainable development as defined by the UN’s SDGs, (2) integrate bottom-up off-grid energy systems design and supply chain optimisation, and (3) design an integrated system which enables sustainable development and provides both affordable and scalable off-grid electricity access in rural SSA.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union