Note the key roles of financing, payment platforms, and software. It's not just about LEDs and cheap photovoltaics: in almost every project mentioned, the users

Note the key roles of financing, payment platforms, and software. It's not just about LEDs and cheap photovoltaics: in almost every project mentioned, the users prepay for energy through electronic cash transfers (directly from their phone), and the systems are profitable to run. The primary barriers to adoption are (i) upfront financing and (ii) software for managing these systems at scale. There are at least several SF-area companies working on hardware and software for the off-grid energy market, including ours (http://www.angazadesign.com/ http://www.angazadesign.com/ - we're hiring). It's an exciting area.