Energy Access

UN Sustainable Development Goal #7 is to ‘ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all’. As these four dimensions indicate, energy access has multiple facets, each of which lies on a continuum. For example, reliability of access could range from having intermittent power for a few hours per day, and with unpredictable blackouts and brownouts, to having essentially 100% electricity supply year-round. So, it is not easy to measure energy access, yet alone try to classify populations as being ‘with’ or ‘without’ it.

 The IEA defines energy access as ‘a household having reliable and affordable access to both clean cooking facilities and to electricity, which is enough to supply a basic bundle of energy services initially, and then an increasing level of electricity over time to reach the regional average’.

The IEA’s Energy Access Outlook (2017) report considers a basic bundle of energy services to mean at least several lightbulbs, ‘task lighting’ such as a flashlight, phone charging, and a radio. It defines access to clean cooking facilities as access to, and primary use of, modern fuels and technologies, including natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, electricity, and biogas, or improved biomass cook stoves, as opposed to the basic biomass cook stoves and three-stone fires used in developing countries.

In terms of electricity access, two regions with low access to electricity will benefit from leapfrogging opportunities of off-grid PV systems. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of population using off-grid PV as the electricity source will exceed 50% by 2050. In the Indian Subcontinent, due to lower cost of grid access and higher penetration levels of grid-connected electricity already available, the share of off-grid PV will reach around 30%. Off-grid PV is described in more detail under PV in the energy supply section of this chapter, and in the Sub-Saharan Africa regional description.

When it comes to accessing both modern cooking and water heating, the world will not achieve universal access to modern fuels (we also include some non-clean fuels such as coal and oil in the modern fuels definition). In 2050, 300–400 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will still be relying on traditional biomass for their cooking and water

heating needs. In the Indian Subcontinent, the share of population without access to modern water heating will shrink markedly from 29% to 8%; but progress in access to modern fuels for cooking will be slower.

Looking at the more specific and 2030-focused SDG target 7.1: “By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services”, this will largely be met for all regions except Sub-Saharan Africa for access to electricity, while it will not be met for either Sub-Saharan Africa, Indian Subcontinent or South East Asia for access to modern cooking and modern water heating.