The priority of most governments in the world today is to boost economic growth and drive development across all sectors of the economy, especially through industrialization. To do thissuccessfully, governments should not downplay the role of electricity in the growth process especially when it comes to the electrification of rural communities. Over the past years, rural electrification has taken on different approaches such as grid extension,off-grid energy home systems and mini-grids harnessing one or more renewable resources to produce electricity. This project made an economic comparison between two different approaches of rural electrification – Grid extension and Off-grid Solar PV-genset hybrid mini-grid system. Using a rural community located in the Bekwai, district of the Ashanti Region in Ghana called Atwetwesuas, the economic comparison for the two alternatives was done using three economicanalysis parameters – The net present cost (also called the life cycle cost), the levelized cost of energy and the break-even grid extension distance. The study employed the HOMER Pro in calculating most of these economic analysis parameters. In all the three parameters, it was found out that the off-grid solar PV-genset hybrid system is economically more viable than the grid extension approach giving reference to the site under study, Atwetesu.

Keywords : EHS – Energy Home Systems, EDL – Economic Distance Limit , Genset – Generator Set, HOMER – Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables , IRR – Internal Rate of Return, LCC – Life Cycle Cost, LCOE – Levelized Cost of Electricity, SHS –Solar Home , , SOC –State of Charge, WHS – Wind Home Systems