Accelerating the road towards Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa through renewable off-grid systems

Energy poverty is affecting 700 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The burden falls heaviest on those living under 1USDday poverty line because it places barriers to human development by interrupting access to economic improvement, education and healthcare. Un Sustainable Development Goals focus on sustainable development of the bottom of the pyramid, and for the first time include energy access as an essential step in the fight against poverty and inequality. This article therefore aims at briefly overviewing some existent local solutions to address energy poverty, with specific focus on the off-grid systems and their advantages, and the identified contributions of these systems to the SDGs progress.