It turns out these super-efficient appliances are colliding with another radical technology transformation in the form of widespread, high quality, cheap solar home systems. These systems are serving those living beyond the reach of the grid and spreading like wildfire with dramatic sales figures and projections, backed by increasing investments. But this rapid progress isn't happening because of the falling price of solar. It was the advent of LED light bulbs which brought down the size of the entire system, and therefore the cost. If we extend the principle that super efficiency unlocks energy services for the poor up the energy ladder, we have the makings of a solar revolution.



The ability to deliver more services with less is really important because the vast majority of development gains, as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), come within the first 2500 kWh per person per year. And this analysis doesn't even reflect the rise of super-efficient off-grid technologies -- or the fact that its energy services, not energy consumption, that drive the development benefits of energy access. That means with the advent of super-efficient appliances, and distributed solar to power them, we can power tremendous social and economic development faster than ever before without confining generations of people to the dark as they wait for a grid that may never arrive.







With more public support on the way super-efficient TVs are likely to be the beginning, not the end, of cutting-edge technologies that reach the African masses. Last week the White House announced that Power Africa's Beyond the Grid program is making $1.5 million investment in Global LEAP + RBF, a cool new program from CLASP, the U.S. Department of Energy, EnDev, IFC and others to reduce early-mover risk and demonstrate scale in the appliance market.