Who's in the dark__satellite based estimates of electrification rates - Urban Remote Sensing: Monitoring, Synthesis and Modeling in the Urban Environment - page 200

15
Who's in the dark __ satellite based
estimates of electrification rates
Christopher D.Elvidge, Kimberly E. Baugh, Paul C. Sutton,
Budhendra Bhaduri, Benjamin T. Tuttle, Tilotamma Ghosh,
Daniel Ziskin and Edward H. Erwin
A technique has been developed to estimate the percent population having electric power access based on the
presence of satellite detected night-time lighting. A global survey was conducted for the year 2006 using night-time
lights collected by the US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) in combination with the US
Department of Energy Landscan population dataset. The survey includes results for 232 countries and more than
2000 subnational units. The results are compared to reported electrification rates for 86 countries compiled from a
variety of sources by the International Energy Agency. The DMSP derived estimate of number of people worldwide
who lack access to electricity is 1.62 billion, only slightly larger than the 1.58 billion estimated by the International
Energy Agency.