MCC should carefully consider approaches to ensure the long-term operations and maintenance of newly introduced technologies (e.g., solar infrastructure), including ease of procuring spare parts and transfer of technical capacity. The evaluation noted that sourcing spare parts for the new, battery-powered mini-grids was a challenge for some communities. In one case where an Indonesian firm had provided the infrastructure, spare parts were easier to procure. Solar electricity infrastructure is often targeted to remote communities that likely have limited access to markets. As such, mechanisms for improving management practices and maintenance must be core to solar project design. The Green Prosperity project’s joint community and private sector ownership model for the community-based renewable energy grants anticipated that the private sector would be incentivized to sustain the mini grids, ensuring the provision of spare parts and repairs, however this did not play out as expected in all cases. In instances where communities acquired the technical knowledge and maintained access to spare parts, repairs were managed adequately compared to situations with limited knowledge transfer that relied on international firms for both skills and access to spare parts.
Lesson Learned