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Rosina Norton of the Light Year Foundation tells me that in Kenya and some other east African countries, PowerGen and Power Hive are both installing solar mini-grids. Southampton University has an energy for development (E4D) department which has three working mini-grids in operation for research purposes. IBM Africa are also doing research in that area (Nairobi Research Centre) and finally the renewable energy consultancy African Solar Designs Ltd have done a lot of work consulting governments and NGOs on this topic.

Rosina also says "One model for a mini-grids which I think is really interesting is the ABC model which works on the basis that there is a larger anchor load (A) which uses >50% of the generated energy at a specific tariff to cover base load costs. then several surrounding business (B) have another tariff and finally, some of those businesses are selling solar lantern/offering charging facilities to the community (C)."