一个社会企业家投资了她必须将太阳能电力带给一个像这样的社区的营运资金1.2 billion people worldwide- 缺乏电力。该社区过去曾经使用肮脏，昂贵且窒息的煤油来烹饪和让儿童学习。企业家知道她可以收回自己的费用，因为人们愿意为可靠，高质量，清洁能源付费 - 甚至比他们用来支付的煤油费还要少。听起来像是一个好消息，对吧？

三个月后，尽管官方计划表明这至少需要四年，但政府公用事业将电网扩展到同一社区。虽然这对社区来说可能是个好消息，但意外的结果是，这破坏了企业家的投资，消灭营运资金，并阻止投资者支持其他无法获得电力的社区中的分散的清洁能源项目。

This story illuminates just one way in which policy and regulation is critically important for entrepreneurs striving to increase access to clean energy. Knowing where the grid is going to go – and when – is an important criterion to help them target their investments where they’re needed most.这只是企业家和社会企业专家小组讨论的问题之一第八届亚洲清洁能源论坛this June, which focused on how we can develop the policy and regulatory conditions to empower energy access entrepreneurs to massively scale up their delivery of clean energy access.

尽管通过集中的传输和分销网格传递电力构成了大多数国家电力系统的骨干，并且是解决世界能量通道挑战的关键部分，但小规模的清洁能源企业家也可以发挥有价值的作用。这些类型的能源提供者会吸引想要获得清洁能源服务的消费者，并且网格可能是不确定的前景。因此，重要的是，政策和监管条件都支持自上而下和自下而上的方法，以确保所有社区的可持续能源。

为所有人确保清洁能源

这scope of this issue is huge: in our recent issue brief,“Implementation Strategies for Renewable Energy Services in Low-Income, Rural Areas,”我们为社会企业确定了6种不同类别的创新业务模型，这些企业提供了能源通道。这些模型中的每一个都面临着一套不同的监管和政策挑战。监管和政策问题也对技术的影响也有所不同：专注于生物质迷你网格的企业可能会面临与太阳能照明提供者面临的挑战相差很大。

Despite this diversity, in my conversations with entrepreneurs at the Asia Clean Energy Forum, there was an incredible amount of shared concern around a few key policy and regulatory issues. Below are some that were most frequently cited:

  • Subsidies for fossil fuels or grid-provided electricity need to be addressed to level the playing field for clean energy access:Subsidies for kerosene or other dirty energy can mask the true cost of energy services, and make clean energy seem unattractive by comparison. Likewise, grid electricity – and especially transmission and distribution infrastructure – is often heavily subsidized. Leveling the playing field for clean energy access alternatives is important to ensuring that consumers have the best options available to them.
  • Streamlined, standardized product certification could boost consumer confidence in clean energy options:Poor-quality products flooding the market have led to negative experiences among users, and can undermine the efforts of honest brokers selling good-quality products and services. Developing standards for manufacturers can help to enhance trust in off-grid technologies. However, according to some of the entrepreneurs at the Asia Clean Energy Forum, even some well-intentioned programs to help certify products have had long certification delays, have lacked real standardization, and have tended to support vendors with government connections, so it’s important to get these programs right.
  • 明确的网格扩展计划可​​以降低对能源访问企业和投资者的风险：本文开头的故事说明了为什么这对企业家很重要。提高透明度和公众参与电力计划过程是有效电力治理的关键组成部分。必威官网亚洲体育
  • Transparent, easy-to-administer end-user financing could help:这example of Bangladesh is perhaps the best-known model, where IDCOL, a state-owned development finance institution dedicated to financing infrastructure, developeda program to support household-scale solar electricity。This program provides financing support to consumers, reducing interest rates and making it easier for end-users of solar home systems to repay their loans to microfinance institutions.

克服能源访问挑战

Many of these policy and regulatory issues are the same ones people have been talking about for the past 10 years – but there’s reason for optimism; a few things have changed in that time, including:

  • 技术创新。For example,we have better and far more affordable solar panels比我们五年前做过。
  • 创新的业务模型。Innovative business models for delivering clean energy access have proliferated, as illustrated in our recent issue brief“低收入农村地区可再生能源服务的实施策略。”该行业也有更多创新的金融途径。•政治势头。这Sustainable Energy For All Initiativeis just one important example of the high-level support for rapidly achieving near-universal access to clean energy services. Although much must be done to deliver on these initiatives’ promise, momentum appears to be growing.
  • 充满活力的企业家。我在亚洲清洁能源论坛上的经验向我介绍了新一代的企业家，他们有力地应对能源通道挑战。

While entrepreneurs can do a lot to advance clean energy access, we need to establish the right policy and regulatory conditions to unlock their full potential and catalyze a clean energy access revolution.

在本周早些时亚洲清洁能源论坛，我们从菲律宾的企业家那里听说了渔夫的能源需求。他们晚上与煤油灯笼一起出去吸引鱼，每晚在煤油上花费7美元，每月约200美元。他们今天捕获的四十％的鱼用于购买煤油。持久，耐用的太阳能灯笼针对当地需求量身定制，现在帮助渔夫实现了每月收入的大幅增长。

这些故事证明了能源访问为何是发展的必要性。我们也有一个令人难以置信的机会以真正可持续的方式交付它。制定政策和法规，以帮助清洁能源企业家取得成功是实现这一机会的重要组成部分，并实现了雄心壮志Sustainable Energy for All。