Abstract

The World Bank, one of the most important supporters of rural electrification projects, estimates that approximately 1.2 billion people do not have regular access to electricity. In Latin America as a whole, according to the International Energy Agency, the electrification rate has reached 92.3% but that still leaves 33.8 million people without access to electricity (see Figure 1). They live mostly in rural and isolated areas that are often neglected by electrification projects due to the high associated costs and technical difficulties.