The use of electricity to provide lighting services usually has very high priority among the villagers. This is because electric lamps have major advantages over their nonelectric counterparts (such as kerosene lighting and candles), including increased levels of light, better quality light, greater ease of use, and lower cost per unit of light output.
However, there are few incentives to apply energy-efficient lighting in conventional rural electrification (grid extension).
Electricity tariffs are often low and do not provide strong incentives to choose the optimal lighting source.
In addition, alternative more efficient lamps are either not available or consumers lack information about them.
In contrast, when solar photovoltaics provide the electricity for rural lighting, the high cost of electricity per unit motivates more careful selection of the lamp or are already included in the kit that comes with the purchase of a photovoltaic system.
However, cheaper, less efficient types of electric lamps may be more appropriate under certain circumstances.