Smart Off-Grid Solar Appliances: Using Remote Monitoring to Improve Efficiency, Performance and Affordability

Off-grid appliances are vital for expanding energy access, strengthening food security and reducing vulnerability to climate change. Yet current sales meet less than 2% of total need​1, leaving millions without reliable solutions. Remote monitoring can help bridge this gap. By enabling real-time tracking of appliance performance, usage, and faults, this technology gives companies the tools to help improve service quality, strengthen customer trust, and unlock new financing models.

This report is designed for two groups of companies:

• Newcomers exploring remote monitoring for the first time. This report highlights the practical steps to get started, from low cost, modular options to key questions about data use, costs, and connectivity.
• Established innovators looking to expand or refine their systems. We showcase emerging opportunities — from predictive maintenance and digital measurement, reporting, and Verification (digital MRV) to cross-sector interoperability — that can create new business models and revenue streams.

Strategic recommendations

• Established innovators using remote monitoring: Expand applications of remote monitoring, embed user-centred design, share learnings, align with digital MRV standards.

• Newcomers: Explore more practical guidance.

• Remote monitoring service providers: Develop modular, interoperable tools for low-connectivity environments, provide aggregation services to support carbon finance and third-party reporting.

• Industry associations: Promote and support interoperability, encourage participation in shared platforms for emissions tracking, results-based finance, user data pooling

• Funders and investors: Provide long-term support and patient capital to help companies test and iterate on innovative models and technologies, help shape an inclusive and efficient market aligned with long-term climate and development goals
• Policymakers and regulators: Create the enabling conditions for future alignment and growth, support digital inclusion, promote awareness of digital rights and privacy standards.

Download the full report and summary for companies to learn more.

You can also read our accompanying interview with Ben Wycliff Mugalu and Benjamin Bwowe from Innovex, who discuss how the Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund has enabled them to improve repair and maintenance for off-grid appliances.