The Reflections series synthesizes lessons from past evaluations to support organizational learning about what works and what doesn't. This paper examines past evaluations to provide nine lessons on expanding access to energy through renewable sources:

1. Sustaining off-grid
2. Better barrier analysis
3. Building local capacity
4. Deciding when to demonstrate
5. Bringing investors along
6. Considering end-users
7. Planning for development benefits
8. Understanding gender dynamics
9. Setting realistic goals

This paper is a rapid evaluation synthesis from 52 evaluations issued by the UNDP between 2013 and 2023 as well as external sources. The sources consist of country-level and thematic evaluations conducted by the IEO, quality-assured decentralized evaluations commissioned by country offices and some key external studies published in academic journals and in grey literature repositories on the topic. The development of this paper leveraged a combination of AI-led searches in UNDP’s AIDA tool (Artificial Intelligence for Development Analytics) and human-led analysis.