Sustainable Development of Renewable Energy Mini‐grids for Energy Access: A Framework for Policy Design

This study provides a framework for mini-grid policy design underpinned by specific implementation examples from seven countries—China, India, Brazil, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Tanzania—that have implemented the various components of mini-grid policies with varying results. The study highlights the critical policy components, and their interplay, that are required for sustainable deployment and operation of RE mini-grids. It employs six elements of sustainability that should be considered in policy design from the perspective of all stakeholders, and it uses these to provide recommendations for designing the institutional, technical, and economic components of mini-grid policies.