Solar panel technology is often touted as a solution for rural villagers in developing countries who need access to electricity. And certainly the panels, combined with batteries and energy efficient appliances and lighting, can be a solid, emission-free solution for areas too far away to connect to regional grids.

But what if these villagers don’t actually want the panels? That was the case in rural Rajasthan, India, when the national government tried to introduce subsidized microgrids. UC Berkeley researchers at the Energy Institute at Haas were there to study the program and described the source of the opposition:

Many villagers were holding out for “real” electricity.  In some cases, local politicians had made election promises that a connection to the centralized grid was imminent. Legitimately, the Government of India has made truly impressive strides towards its promise to provide electricity access for all. Although the fine print of this pledge leaves many households in the dark, the promise of relatively cheap conventional grid power was enough to dissuade many potential microgrid customers.

Households also balked at the price of the Gram Power system. Recall that the Gram Power connection fee was approximately $20. To put this in perspective, the average income among households in the villages that adopted microgrids was around $110 per month. Also, the subsidized per kWh charge for grid power for poor rural customers is less than 5 INR.  To cover expected costs, Gram Power’s per kWh charge was four times as high!

In sum, it proved very hard—and expensive—to compete with the promise of subsidized grid power.

Making matters worse, the microgrids that were deployed were subject to constant theft by villagers, and the people assigned to crack down on the thieves were often reluctant to do so because they lived with these individuals and didn’t want to create bad relations.

It’s a classic example of the common dysfunction with economic assistance. Affluent outsiders believe they already have a solution to meet the needs of the impoverished villager, and then are shocked when the solutions are rejected or don’t work as planned.

While solar technology has clear benefits, a better way to start is to ask locals what they want first, and then work to deliver on those requests. Otherwise, the process is backwards and prone to fail.