| Sustaining innovation |
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Improving the diffusion of appliances-based on the appliance pattern as shown in Fig. 10
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Creating local micro-entrepreneurship driven financial models. Roadmap is in place in the Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP) of the government of Rwanda.
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Skill development and community-led energy management initiatives with off-grid solutions in rural households.
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Consumption clusters for green growth should be created around the ICT devices as it is the fastest diffusing technology in Rwanda (see Fig. 10).
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Encouraging and supporting frugal innovation with service-based business model for enabling greater utility derivation from mobile phones.
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Fuel switching of cooking energy in rural households with cleaner modes like solar or biomass is critical for green growth in Rwanda.
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| Overshooting consumer needs |
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Anticipating the uncertainties associated with household energy demand due to diffusion of electrical appliances will improve the resilience of off-grid renewable energy systems. It will in turn promote more appliance uptake across socio-economic classes.
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Financial models and incentives for greater uptake of welfare appliances in the rural areas. It should be in-line
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Enabling infrastructure for welfare appliance uptake and ICT devices with off-grid electrification planning to avoid consumer overshooting.
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Better and more equitable tariff plan as per the Ubudehe categories can promote consumption-centric green growth for inclusive renewable energy transitions. The ongoing VUP program can be an ad-hoc platform for such energy policy instruments.
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| Response to consumer threats |
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Better understanding of behavioural routines and collective identities through energy use and social shaping of technology surveys.
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The government should leverage the VUP platform to experiment with behavioural public policymaking. Recent example of such data-driven policymaking approach from public narratives and public policy discourses can be found in Ref. [82].
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The growing ICT ecosystem in Rwanda should be leveraged with just energy policymaking at the grassroots level. Micro-entrepreneurship at rural level to support the current wave of appliance uptake in Fig. 10 can aid in agile responses to consumer threats.
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Special schemes for the U2 and U4 Ubudehe category can promote equity in appliance uptake. Therefore, fostering green growth at the bottom of the pyramid.
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| Floundering as a result of innovation |
Increase system efficiency, reliability, provision of super-efficient appliances, reduce consumer tariffs and offer services that will improve consumer willingness to pay. Better repair and maintenance service ecosystem for appliances, which is currently absent in rural Rwanda, can sustain a stronger consumer base. |
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Increasing the reliance on off-grid solutions in rural areas through mixture of fuel at households can be a key to sustaining green growth and developing collective consumption identities for green growth.
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Fig. 10 also showed higher uptake of power stabilizers. It indicated power quality and reliability issues which must be addressed for improving energy affordability and accessibility across the Ubudehe categories. Off-grid transition must address it to sustain disruption from below in rural Rwanda.
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