Decentralized renewables are critical for rural electrification in many countries in the Global South. As a case study of the development of decentralized renewables, we trace the evolution of India's off-grid solar sector from 1980 through 2020. We apply the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) to highlight interactions across three levels of actors, with additional attention to how their actions were shaped by evolving policy narratives. We find that the national government initiated the development of off-grid solar in the early 1980s due to concerns about energy security and rural poverty. The sector was then supported by international agencies focused on sustainable development, and more recently non-state players and private enterprise emerged as the innovators. This case study makes two more general contributions to the MLP literature. Empirically, it shows how regime actors can deliberately create niches. Theoretically, it shows how narrative analysis can be integrated into the MLP to shed light on the dynamics of energy transitions.

分散式可再生能源对于全球南方许多国家的农村电气化至关重要。作为分散式可再生能源发展的案例研究，我们追溯了印度离网太阳能行业从 1980 年到 2020 年的演变。我们应用多层次视角 (MLP) 来突出三个层次参与者之间的相互作用，并特别关注他们的行动是如何被不断演变的政策叙述所塑造的。我们发现，出于对能源安全和农村贫困的担忧，国家政府在 1980 年代初期就开始了离网太阳能的发展。该部门随后得到了专注于可持续发展的国际机构的支持，最近非国有企业和私营企业成为创新者。本案例研究对 MLP 文献做出了两个更普遍的贡献。从经验上看，它显示了政权行为者如何故意创造利基。从理论上讲，它展示了如何将叙事分析集成到 MLP 中，以阐明能量转换的动态。