The global microgrid market is ready for significant private investment. While there remain some challenges – especially around the regulatory framework and aggregation of projects – there are now enough businesses with viable business models to provide early stage, strategic or even crowd investors with commercially attractive opportunities.
Originally published August 18th, 2017: The expansion of microgrids is accelerating due to the resilience and flexibility they provide as well as the speed with which they can bring electricity to the unelectrified. In order for them to be profitable as well, they need to be optimized. TFE Consulting’s newest report, Kenya: The World’s Microgrid Lab, provides a model of the typical microgrid costs to show the available profit.
The model assumes an average customer usage of approximately 1.9 kWh per day, which is high. While some customers use this much (and more), many residential consumers use less than 50 Wh per day. This suggests two fundamental design points: first, ‘right-sizing’ the microgrid optimizes energy use and generates more profit. Secondly, the more services offered along with electricity, the more efficient the system.
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