Expanding access to clean energy in rural and remote areas remains a key challenge across Asia and the Pacific. Decentralized solutions—such as microgrids, off-grid solar, and hybrid renewable systems—offer promising alternatives to conventional grid expansion. Yet affordability, infrastructure gaps, and financing barriers continue to limit their reach. This session will examine how targeted innovation, enabling policies, and strong public-private collaboration can scale up clean energy deployment in underserved communities.

Participants will hear from innovators and practitioners working at the intersection of energy access and community impact. The session will feature cases on retrofitted electric motorcycles offering an affordable entry point into clean mobility, hybrid microgrids that combine solar and wave energy for greater reliability, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) as tools for strengthening grid resilience. It will also explore how decentralized, renewable-powered cold storage is creating new livelihood opportunities for smallholder farmers.