During my recent participation at the Center for the Study of African Economies 2017 Conference in Oxford, I noticed a great number of papers focused on the topics I mainly work on, namely access to energy.
As highlighted by these numerous research efforts, access to energy in Africa is still a problem, and there are no easy solutions yet. Generally speaking, on one side on-grid solutions are still very costly and inefficient, while off-grid options (solar lamps, or solar house kits) are workable but are not able to guarantee a sufficient level of service to really make an impact. Moreover, the spreading of off-grid solutions is slowed down by a low willingness-to-pay and subsidies appear to still be necessary.