Access to Energy via Digital Finance: Overview of Models and Prospects for Innovation

This paper provides an overview of the digitally financed energy access sector, highlighting advancements in business models and product offerings. The focus is on businesses deploying PAYG solar photovoltaic products using digitized payments and unique hardware to control the use of energy services. While there are experiences combining digital finance with a wide range of energy technologies, PAYG solar photovoltaic (PV) products have by far the most market traction in terms of total units sold, amount of time deployed, and number of countries with active sales.