American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 5 2016

Appliance Ownership and Aspirations among Electric Grid and Home Solar Households in Rural Kenya

Kenneth Lee¹; Edward Miguel²; Catherine Wolfram³

¹ University of California, Berkeley, 207 Giannini Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: ) · ² University of California, Berkeley, 530 Evans Hall, #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: ) · ³ University of California, Berkeley, 2220 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: )

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are active debates about whether increases in energy access should be driven by investments in electric grid infrastructure or small-scale “home solar” systems (e.g., solar lanterns and solar home systems). We summarize the results of a household electrical appliance survey and describe how households in rural Kenya differ in terms of appliance ownership and aspirations. Our data suggest that home solar is not a substitute for grid power. Furthermore, the environmental advantages of home solar are likely to be relatively small in countries like Kenya, where grid power is primarily derived from non-fossil fuel sources.

DOI

10.1257/aer.p20161097

Volume

106

Issue

5

Pages

89-94

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

Cite

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