September 6, 2019
The Land of Opportunity for Off-Grid Solar
Consolidation is picking up in Africa’s off-grid renewables market, where big investors like Engie are betting on the electricity consumers of the future. While a variety of technologies and products are considered part of the off-grid ecosystem, solar home systems have been the star from an investment perspective, and particularly those sold under a pay-as-you-go (paygo) model. Under such a model, customers are provided with a solar-generation unit, usually backed up with a battery, and the homeowners make lease payments over time as they benefit from the electricity. Paygo allows companies to tap into a vast base of potential customers that cannot pay for a system upfront.
