How to provide electricity access to the remote regions in developing countries is a vast topic, both in terms of its scope and its related research. Take Africa as an example. The majority of people in Africa live in rural areas, but more and more people are moving to cities each day. One central question is: What if the most efficient (i.e. cost-effective) way to provide access to the most people? Is it large grids, or is it distributed energy (DE)? How should we model the problem?
I stumbled upon this video, which made me think the solution may be a combination of both. That is large grids will have a major role in providing access, but for people who live in remote areas DE will be the way to go: