Want an Alternative to the Traditional Utility? Look at Tanzania.

The future alternative to the traditional electric utility may emerge first in The East African nation Tanzania. This nation has developed the best system of regulating and spurring off-grid power systems anywhere in the world, according to the annual Climatescope study into energy investment trends in developing nations.

Africa is becoming a working laboratory for financial and technical innovations that can bring power to the masses without erecting centralized power plants and costly distribution grids. An off-grid system is a small electricity network that can range from solar-powered lanterns to rooftop photovoltaic panels to miniature grids. Power is generated and distributed independent of the country's national grid. The technologies have been touted as an answer for lowering energy poverty, particularly in rural areas.

According to The Washington Post, the continent already has attracted $450 million for off-grid power systems fed by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The nation trumped Kenya, Uganda and 16 other Sub-Saharan countries in the Climatescope rankings for a second consecutive year. BNEF analysts evaluated the markets based on energy policy and regulations, electrification rates, project developers and private investment.  

Bloomberg reports that Rift Valley is building two off-grid hydroelectric projects in Tanzania with 1.5 and 3 megawatts of capacity, respectively. It has a pipeline with 15 more hydro plants and 2.5 megawatts of wind energy, Gratwicke said by phone from Zimbabwe where the company is based.

PV Magazine says that Off Grid Electric, which operates in Tanzania and Rwanda, and is involved in the entire business cycle, from design, manufacture, installation and maintenance, have created a distributed solar model, dubbed M-Power, to service the off-grid energy market. Enabling everyone to benefit, it redirects the fund individuals were paying for kerosene and batteries to a solar lease.

Talks about solar energy have been increased in recent months. This is expected to step up following the climate summit, which concluded in Paris earlier this week. There, the continent took center stage, due to its particular vulnerability to the effects of climate change, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it.

Tanzania-based developers of residential solar systems such as Off-Grid Electric and Mobisol have installed tens of thousands of their rooftop technologies. Their photovoltaic panels and batteries can power lights, a small refrigerator, a television set or radio and also charge mobile phones. Off-Grid Electric aims to electrify 1 million homes in the next three years.