A colleague of mine has spent fifteen years on and off working on remote small-scale hydropower in Afghanistan. These villages (~ 100 families) can afford installations that give each house ~50 W. Enough for lighting, maybe some small electronics, but even a small heating element (300 W) is way too big. An induction oven draws 1200 W per element...<p>But lighting is a game changer for these people. For instance it means kids can read after sunset, improving literacy and education in general.<p>Another interesting thing he told me: they still use fluorescent tube lights in all new installations, and have no plans to switch to LEDs. The reason is that LED bulbs are compatible with incandescents, so whenever a bulb breaks, people will replace it with the cheapest bulb they find (i.e. incandescent), and that will not only reduce the efficiency, but overload the power &quot;grid&quot;. So fluorescents win in the long run.