Energy Assessment Toolkit (2017, 16 pages)
Executive Summary
The effective development of energy access programs or businesses requires knowledge of the local
energy access landscape and broader societal context. Understanding the energy needs and market
opportunities in the specific off-grid community or region is the first step in D-Lab’s Off-Grid Energy
Roadmap shown below:
In support of organizations looking to address energy access challenges in communities where they work, MIT D-Lab’s Off-Grid Energy group has developed the Energy Assessment Toolkit. This toolkit is designed to guide organizations through the process of gathering the information needed to make informed decisions about what technologies and business models are best suited to meet the specific needs in their community through market based initiatives.
The Energy Assessment Toolkit is a set of documents and files that can be used to gather and analyze information about the current energy access, aspirational energy needs, existing supply chain, and stakeholders in the communities of interest. There are three types of documents in the toolkit are organized by color and letter:
“A” Data collection tools
“B” Data analysis and visualization tools
“C” Training and supporting documents
The name of each file begins with a unique letter (indicating the file type) and number combination (A1, A2, A3, ..., B1, B2, ..., etc.). The toolkit is designed to be modular so that the organization conducting the assessment can determine the scope and scale of the assessment.
This document is an introduction to the Energy Assessment Toolkit. The full toolkit is available for download on Google Drive, and additional information can be found here.
Contact
Eric Verploegen, MIT D-Lab Research Engineer