Abstract:
Energy is pivotal to the challenges and opportunities the world faces today. Energy consumption shows its impact on evaluating the indicators of socio-economic development all over the world. In Rwanda, energy is a critical productive sector that can catalyse broader economic growth and significantly facilitate socio-economic transformation targets. The country has both conversion and renewable energy sources. The energy regulations and policies give marked attention to the use of clean, modern and energy-efficient technologies.
Energy policies and regulations guide and influence extraction decisions, development, and use of Rwanda's energy resources in a viable manner. The policies and regulations framework outlined comprises a set of governing policies, laws and regulations, guiding principles and strategic directions that Rwandan institutions and partners shall adhere to and adopt during implementation of actions. The energy sector vision is to become one of the most dynamic sectors and investment destinations in Rwanda.
Rwanda has elaborated energy policies and regulations documents to guide national development over different energy resources, including solar energy. This project reviewed policies and regulations of the off-grid solar PV system and its derivatives aspects in Rwanda.
The review and analysis of policies and regulations of Rwanda and referral countries (India and China) show that the policies and regulation of Rwanda has a weakness to be rectified like long time and process of getting a license for the mini-grid project, extension of the national grid in the location of mini-grid and license for auto production when the power produced is more than 50 KW. We also fund the strength and experience of policies and regulations from referral countries to adopt in Rwanda, like financial incentives to support solar energy production and attract investors. The impact of incentives on the solar energy project and the effect of policies and regulations on rural and remote villages' social economy were also assessed
