Energy access ecosystems
The ‘energy access ecosystems’ approach is proposed by Practical Action as a framework for international action. It has been developed into a useful tool that can be used to measure and understand the ‘health’ of a specific country’s energy system. It can also be used to assess the potential for making rapid progress towards Universal Energy Access.
For poor people to have greater access to energy services and appliances, a wide range of people and organisations have a role to play. Practical Action feels the best way to measure an ‘energy access ecosystem’ is through policy, capacity and finance indicators. The ecosystem captures these actors and the indicators provide specific markers for measurement.
Practical Action’s most recent report, the Poor people’s energy outlook 2013: Energy for community services (PPEO 2013), builds on our existing framework and refines some of the indicators. We have reduced are indicators from 17 to 9 and you can find the improved index here.
Explore the diagram below to see how all the parts of an ecosystem fit together. You can hover over the magnifying glass icons to read more, and click through two case studies on the right to show how these parts influence each other