Energy access articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  16 May 2024 | Open Access

  Carbon pricing and system reliability impacts on pathways to universal electricity access in Africa

  This study investigates the role of off-grid solar in achieving SDG7 in Africa, focusing on understanding the impact of carbon pricing and supply reliability. It uses high-resolution spatial analysis and demand modelling to explore policy interventions for universal electricity access.

  • Hamish Beath
  • , Shivika Mittal
  •  & Ajay Gambhir

• Article
  25 October 2023 | Open Access

  The changing impact of rural electrification on Indian agriculture

  Electrified groundwater irrigation is a major driver of India’s agricultural growth. India refocussed rural electrification towards household electrification in early 2000s in detriment of groundwater irrigation electrification, the authors find.

  • Sudatta Ray
  •  & Hemant K. Pullabhotla

• Article
  21 August 2023 | Open Access

  The cost of electrifying all households in 40 Sub-Saharan African countries by 2030

  Solar-powered standalone systems drastically lower the cost of electrifying sub-Saharan Africa. Household electrification can be provided at 7c USD per person per day on average. To reflect inter- and intra-country variance, policymakers should consider electrification cost curves.

  • Florian Egli
  • , Churchill Agutu
  •  & Tobias S. Schmidt

• Article
  17 August 2023 | Open Access

  Geospatial mapping of distribution grid with machine learning and publicly-accessible multi-modal data

  Granular geospatial information of distribution grids is needed for various power system applications. Here the authors develop a machine-learning-based model which can accurately map distribution grids in both the U.S. and Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Zhecheng Wang
  • , Arun Majumdar
  •  & Ram Rajagopal

• Article
  05 October 2021 | Open Access

  High resolution global spatiotemporal assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential for renewable electricity generation

  Though a global assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaic (RTSPV) technology’s potential and the cost is needed to estimate its impact, existing methods demand extensive data processing. Here, the authors report a machine learning method to realize a high-resolution global assessment of RTSPV potential.

  • Siddharth Joshi
  • , Shivika Mittal
  •  & James Glynn

• Article
  04 October 2021 | Open Access

  Household cooking fuel estimates at global and country level for 1990 to 2030

  Household air pollution derived from cooking fuels is a major source of health and environmental problems. Here, the authors provide detailed global, regional and country estimates of cooking fuel usage from 1990 to 2030 and project that 31% of people will still be mainly using polluting fuels in 2030.

  • Oliver Stoner
  • , Jessica Lewis
  •  & Heather Adair-Rohani

• Article
  30 July 2019 | Open Access

  Impacts of air pollutants from rural Chinese households under the rapid residential energy transition

  Residential solid fuel use constitutes a large amount of air pollution but has been gradually replaced by other cleaner energy during the past three decades. Here the authors investigated the contribution of rural residential sector to ambient PM_2.5 pollution and the resulting climate forcing and health impacts, and find that the remaining large quantities of solid fuels used in rural households are still a major contributor to ambient air pollution despite of decrease in its pollutant emissions and relative contribution to PM_2.5 due to the clean energy transition.

  • Guofeng Shen
  • , Muye Ru
  •  & Shu Tao