Niger is located in West Africa, where roughly 80 percent of its land mass is located in the Sahara Desert. Of the country’s 22 million people, only 2.5 million of them have access to electricity. Niger envisions reaching universal electricity access by 2035.
Funded by the US Agency for International Development, NRECA International supported the Niger Mini-Grid Feasibility Study, by reviewing solar mini-grid sites associated with 69 telecommunications towers located across 100 villages in rural Niger. This Power Africa activity prepared the groundwork needed to focus bilateral, multilateral and private sector resources to efficiently finance, construct and operate solar mini grids in as many of these sites as possible.
The NRECA International team’s support included:
- Developing mini-grid feasibility studies
- Developing technical standards for preliminary power generation/distribution design
- Developing financial models for the affected communities
- Performing regulatory review and draft report summarizing existing regulatory framework for mini-grids as well as providing guidance for sector reforms to promote private-sector participation
- Fulfilling “Lead Engineer” responsibilities in technical contributions and revisions to all deliverables.
- Organizing two days of capacity building for ANPER staff and public workshop for Niger energy sector stakeholders as part of ECODIT consortium.