LONDON — The benefits of replacing polluting and noisy diesel with clean renewable power for refugees and displaced people is widely accepted. The problem is how to pay for it.
Solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and mini-grids are much more expensive to install than traditional diesel generators. The payoff comes over the years in the form of free sunshine and wind — saving humanitarian agencies the complications of importing fuel to areas that are often unstable and hard to reach. Small, portable units also allow people to buy their own energy and pay as they go over mobile phones.
But up to now, fossil fuels remain the default in displacement camps.