Modelling the Impact of Market Imperfections on Farm Household Investment in Stand-Alone Solar PV

In many Sub Saharan Africa countries, access to electricity to electricity is very low in rural areas. For example in Ghana only 27% of rural households have access. However, extending the grid in these countries faces significant technical and financial constraints and many see decentralised systems particularly those using renewable energy as being enormously important. This presupposes the adoption of standalone technologies by a large number of poor farm households who are currently off-grid is likely. However, such households in LDCs typically face a range of market imperfections in credit, product and other markets. This paper explores the potential value of access to electricity for poor agricultural households and the extent to which credit and output market imperfections may inhibit the uptake of stand-alone solar panels using a life cycle farm household simulation model which allows for credit constraints and yield risk.