ENGINEERING INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: PATHWAYS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY ACCESS

Abstract

As of 2024, 730 million people worldwide lacked electricity access, roughly eight in ten of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Closing this gap requires engineering approaches suited to the technical, financial, and institutional constraints of low-resource settings, not conventional grid extension alone. This paper reviews four engineering pathways expanding renewable energy access in developing countries — decentralized mini-grids, IoT-enabled pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar financing, frugal engineering, and AI-assisted smart-grid digitalization — using case evidence from Kenya, India, and East Africa's PAYG sector.