sustainability Article A Retrospective Analysis of Energy Access with a Focus on the Role of Mini-Grids Alexandros Korkovelos 1,* , Hisham Zerriffi 2 , Mark Howells 3,4, Morgan Bazilian 1,5, H-Holger Rogner 1,6 and Francesco Fuso Nerini 1,5 1 Department of Energy Technology, Division of Energy Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm 11428, Sweden;
[email protected] (M.B.);
[email protected] (H.-H.R.);
[email protected] (F.F.N.) 2 Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada; hisham.zerriffi@ubc.ca 3 Department of Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK;
[email protected] 4 Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College, London SW7 1NE, UK 5 Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA 6 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 30 January 2020; Accepted: 21 February 2020; Published: 27 February 2020 Abstract: Achieving universal access to electricity by 2030 is a key part of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, and has its own Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 7.1. This is because electricity services are required for almost all aspects of a modern economy, from the cooling of vaccines to irrigation pumping, to manufacturing and running a business. The achievement of SDG 7.1 will require a thoughtful mix of policy, finance, and technology to be designed and implemented at scale. Yet, the pressing need for an electrification ramp-up is not unprecedented. Many countries (now considered “industrialized”) faced similar challenges about a century ago.