Designing Public Funding Mechanisms in the Off-Grid Solar Sector

This report provides guidance to governments and their development partners on how public funding can be used to provide energy access to households through off-grid solar (OGS) solutions, such as solar lights, solar home systems (SHS), and related appliances.

The report explores how public funding mechanisms can be deployed—on the supply side, the demand side, or both—to provide energy access through OGS. Funding mechanisms are defined as supply side when funding goes to companies or investors to reduce the cost or risk of supplying products to end users, and are demand side when the funding mechanism is designed to make OGS more affordable to end users.