**1. Introduction**

In 2017, internal migration was estimated at 1 billion people in developing countries. Rural to urban migration is at the core of this displacement [1]. Rural migration is "one of the main coping and survival mechanisms that is available to those affected by environmental degradation and climate change" [2], an important component of rural livelihoods'strategies to couple with poverty, food insecurity, lack of employment and income-generating opportunities, and inequality, among the root causes [3]. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) rural migration counts at least for

75% of all internal movements [4]. Not without reason, migration is particularly important in this rural-dominated society. Most of rural communities driven to migration in SSA have still traditional rain-fed farming as the main source for income and food security, and their livelihood is characterized by inadequate infrastructure—including the reliable provision of mobility and services such as electricity and water access [3, 5]. These factors, added to exposure to climatic change on farming, push rural dwellers to escape low-productive and climate-vulnerable agriculture, searching the opportunity to raise their level of income. Indeed, according to the last report of rural migrants' profiles of the FAO, around 60% of rural household members in SSA earn less than 1 USD per day and increase their earning to 2 USD per day per rural migrant from the change of main economic activity and access to basic infrastructure [5]. The search for better incomegenerating activities to cover basic human needs as food, water, and energy supply is hence a crucial motivation.

in sub-Saharan Africa without access to electricity, over 80% of them living in rural areas [9]. Meanwhile, rapid population growth is estimated to offset the electrification efforts in the period up to 2030: more people in SSA would lack access to

*Economic Development of Rural Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa through Decentralized…*

electricity than today; 90% of them would be living in rural areas [9]. Targeting electrification in rural areas is a resulting policy strategy to outperform the forecasts and enable the economic development that electricity access could potentially provide to these areas. One dominant strategy is the expansion of national power grid, which has accounted for 97% of new electricity connections since the year 2000; however, it is focused until now in urban areas [9]. Solar-based off-grid systems are the second strategy as SSA receives some of the highest levels of solar irradiation worldwide, with outstanding values of up to 2500 kWh/m<sup>2</sup> annually [5]. These systems, ranging to a power capacity of 5 MWel, offer a cost-effective solution due to the rapidly declining costs of solar photovoltaic systems (PV) and the improvement of their efficiency in energy conversion [11, 12]. However, there are still obstacles in both strategies for the allocation of investment by the public and private sector. Low and dispersed population, low per capita electrical demand, high costs, and efficiency losses of high-voltage transmission lines and distribution networks make rural areas an expensive strategy in the centralized electrification process and rarely economically attractive for electric utilities [13]. In addition, developing countries deal with the lack of sufficient generation capacity, poorly maintained network infrastructure, and the limited ability of rural households to afford the connection charges [10]. Shifting the paradigm towards off-grid solar-based solutions has not yet made a significant contribution on tackling energy poverty in rural areas either [14]. Solar home systems and other solutions tailored to the low payment capacity of the rural population offer the most basic private power, usually for lighting. This access does not enable economic development [15]. As shown in **Figure 1**, 1000 kWh per person are need for a medium human development, which is not achieved by the provision of light alone. Conversely, off-grid renewable solutions tailored for agriculture and other productive uses, which could potentially create jobs and increase the income level of the community, require a high upfront investment. This, coupled with interest rates of 15% and higher, depicts an unattractive high-risk investment for the private sector and an unattainable barrier for rural households,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90424*

which are constrained by their low purchase power [17].

*Macro-level correlation between electricity and human development [16].*

**Figure 1.**

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These challenges require electrification strategies of holistic nature, one that "plans to meet the targets for household electrification taking into account other

Decentralized energy-water-food systems (EWFS) propose a sustainable mechanism to improve living conditions in rural communities with the supply of electricity, water, and food using renewable resources and catalyze community welfare by investing in infrastructure for agricultural productivity. This concept was presented in [6, 7], which introduced the theory of techno-economic linear modeling and least-cost design of EWFS. Based on two case studies on rural Zimbabwe and Ghana, both contributions showed the positive effects of sector coupling models on the total system costs.

### **1.1 Contribution**

On the basis of this preliminary work, this chapter formalizes the concept model framework of decentralized energy-water-food systems and presents an analysis of their economic feasibility based on least-cost optimization and scenario analysis, the latter based on the variability of interest rate and energy system design. The aim is to analyze the capability of EWFS to provide economic-feasible solutions for rural electrification in contrast with existing state-of-the-art solutions and assess its financial attractiveness for major stakeholders.

The next section addresses the root motivation of this work, the role of electricity access for sustainable economic development, and presents the challenges met by the public and private sector in providing it to the rural communities. Section 3 deals with the EWFS' concept and the modeling of its least-cost design. Lastly, Section 4 evaluates the economic feasibility of EWFS based on the variability of the weighted average costs of capital and on the change in system design. The scenario development will show that fully fledged EWFS is the most superior system design to achieve long-term economic sustainable development by enabling the access to electricity and water and increasing agricultural productivity with the lowest annual system costs.
