Upscaling of business model experiments in off-grid PV solar energy in India

Rapidly developing countries like India face numerous challenges related to social and environmental sustainability which are associated with their fast economic growth and rising energy demand, climate change, and widening disparities between rich and poor. Recently, a range of creative innovations have been emerging that attempt to address these complex sustainability-related problems, in part facilitated by increasing globalization of technology and knowledge. These initiatives can be conceptualized as early ‘sustainability experiments’ in a budding sustainability transition process. This paper reports on some promising experiments in the area of off-grid PV solar energy, specifically honing in on the innovative business models that are evolving, and the key role played by social entrepreneurs as the shapers of these models and drivers of success. The experiments are found to be quite successful at a local / regional level, but that they may not (yet) be in a position to bring about change at the required massive scale. The paper provides key insights into the challenges of, and barriers to upscaling, using information from interviews conducted with social entrepreneurs, supplemented by secondary sources.