Assets power solar and battery uptake in Kenya

Solar and battery adoption for households offers many benefits that motivate increased understanding of what drives investment. This paper uses microdata from a household survey in Kenya to investigate factors explaining investment in solar home systems, solar lighting systems, solar lanterns, and solar batteries. Key findings highlight the importance of assets for each investment type. Households are more likely to have a solar home system when they have bank or mobile money accounts, and when they own land with large values. Households are less likely to adopt solar systems when they are unable to afford grid connection, compared to households who are far away from electricity grids. Interaction analysis reveals that off-grid households without a mobile money account in key disadvantaged counties have lower solar home system adoption. A key policy implication is that support could be targeted to households with low levels of assets, in addition to existing support for suppliers.