The World Bank said that a market-driven approach to mini grid development under its National Electrification Project has accelerated the deployment of more than 100 new solar-powered mini grids in Nigeria.

The Bank disclosed this in a press statement, saying that powering 380 million people in Africa by 2030 would require the construction of more than 160,000 mini grids at a cumulative cost of $91 billion.

It attributed the growth in deployment to the decline in the costs of key components, the introduction of new digital solutions, a large and expanding cohort of highly capable mini grid developers and growing economies of scale.

The Bank stated that important progress has been made in several African countries to accelerate the deployment of mini grids and in Nigeria, for example, a market-driven approach to mini grid development under the World Bank-supported National Electrification Project has catalyzed the deployment of more than 100 new solar-powered mini grids. 

It noted that the deployment of solar mini grids has accelerated in Sub-Saharan Africa from 500 installed in 2010 to over 3,000 as at today, and a further 9,000 planned for deployment over the next few years. This is the result of falling costs of key components, the introduction of new digital solutions, a large and expanding cohort of highly capable mini grid developers and growing economies of scale.

At the current pace, only around 12,000 new mini grids serving 46 million people will be built by 2030 at a total investment cost of approximately $9 billion.

Solar mini grids can provide high-quality uninterrupted renewable electricity to underserved villages and communities across Sub-Saharan Africa and be the least-cost solution to close the energy access gap on the continent by 2030.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 568 million people still lack access to electricity. Globally, nearly 8 out of 10 people without electricity live in Africa. At the current rate of progress, 595 million Africans will remain unconnected in 2030.