C6: Powering Productivity: innovative business models to advance PURE (Fee for Service)

In recent years many off-grid solar companies have expanded their focus from rural households to rural enterprises, whether by adding DC appliances (such as fridges or fans) to their standard solar energy kits or by extending their product range to include larger AC systems with inverters often designed for grid-integration.  Also, new players specializing in productive uses of renewable energy (PURE) for agriculture, hospitality or healthcare have entered the market with fresh approaches to consumer financing. This session will explore innovative business models that are emerging in the agricultural and adjacent value chains driven by productive use cases for solar powered cooling solutions.  A focus will be on payment models such as fee-for-service that (unlike PAYG) do not transfer ownership of the asset to the customer.  How are these innovative business and payment models boosting the uptake of productive use equipment in low-income agrarian communities – and what are the challenges and limitations to be considered?  And what can other companies learn from the market pioneers?