New technologies, that produce reliable and low-emissions energy from renewable sources are becoming increasingly cost-effective. These technologies have the potential to generate the energy necessary for economic growth with limited environmental externalities. Most importantly, several LICs are suitable for a large-scale expansion of clean power generation. Despite this, these technologies have not yet been adopted at scale in most LICs, making the current energy mix strongly skewed towards fossil fuels and posing a great risk for the environment. Low adoption of seemingly beneficial technologies – the “Euler equation puzzle” – may reflect several market failures, including low (perceived) benefits, liquidity constraints, incomplete information, incomplete risk markets or behavioural factors. The objectives of this research are to understand barriers to the uptake of these technologies among SMEs in Sierra Leone.
To achieve this objective, the research team conducts a large-scale census of close to 1,700 SMEs across Freetown. SMEs are questioned about constraints to operation, current uses of electricity (types of appliances used), desired electricity appliances, energy spending, grid-electricity service quality, beliefs regarding improvements of grid-electricity service quality and barriers to investing in renewable power off-grid solutions.
