Several hundred million people in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk of being without access to electricity by 2030 despite the ongoing work aimed at achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7—sustainable energy for all. Based on qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, observation, and participation in Kenya and Senegal between 2010 and 2018, the author aims to explain why the rate of progress is slower than intended. The findings highlight three strong hindrances: lack of affordability due to extreme poverty, mismatch between the village-level outreach of grid-based electricity systems and the geography of settlements, and lack of consideration given to gender inequality. The findings also provide new insights into the ways that decentralized small-scale solar power increasingly meets some of the shortcomings of centralized grids in addressing these three issues, even in rural areas where grids are already present. The author concludes that the ways in which village communities have combined the use of solar-powered energy with grid-supplied energy indicates the importance of the former and the need to intensify efforts to improve solar power delivery models and integrate them fully in energy sector strategies.

尽管正在进行旨在实现联合国可持续发展目标7（人人享有可持续能源）的工作，但到2030年，撒哈拉以南非洲地区仍有数亿人口面临无法通电的危险。基于定性访谈，定量调查，观察以及2010年至2018年之间在肯尼亚和塞内加尔的参与情况，作者旨在解释为什么进展速度比预期的慢。调查结果突出表明了三个严重的障碍：由于极端贫困而导致的可负担性不足，村庄一级的电网供电系统与定居点的地理位置不匹配，以及对性别不平等的考虑不足。这些发现还提供了新的见解，说明了分散式小规模太阳能在解决这三个问题上日益克服集中式电网的某些缺点的方法，即使在已经有电网的农村地区也是如此。作者得出的结论是，乡村社区将太阳能和电网提供的能源相结合的方式表明了前者的重要性，并需要加紧努力以改善太阳能发电模式并将其完全纳入能源部门战略中。 。