Rural Electrification Goes Local: Recent innovations in renewable generation, energy efficiency, and grid modernization

The definition of rural areas has evolved over time because of the urbanization movement. Today, rural areas are typically defined as all territories outside urban or suburban areas, where farming is still the main economic activity. The U.S Census Bureau defines a rural area as any area outside of an urbanized area whose population is greater than 50,000 and whose core population density is greater than 1,000 persons per square mile (or 386 persons per square kilometer). There are many other definitions by different countries and even by different government agencies within the same country. Regardless, the common attributes of rural areas are the small population clusters and low population density. These two characteristics dictate that there are tremendous challenges to building infrastructure in the geographically disperse rural areas, which ?constrains economic activities and household incomes. © 2013 IEEE.