his paper provides evidence on a key factor for the success of market-based approaches
to disseminate modern-energy products in rural areas of developing countries: the
employment and income perspectives of entrepreneurs in the related value chains. We
assess the impact of a large-scale energy-access intervention in Kenya that supports
individuals in starting a business in improved cookstoves or small solar products. To
identify the causal effect of the intervention, the analysis is based on a staggeredimplementation
evaluation design that takes advantage of sequential roll-out of the
programme. The results demonstrate how active entrepreneurs use the new business
opportunity to intensify and diversify their income-generating activities, often by
shifting away from subsistence farming as a main source of income. This goes along
with sizeable improvements in individual and household incomes as well as perceived
economic well-being. Impacts significantly differ between the two technologies and
across sub-groups, most notably gender. The findings support that market-based
approaches can successfully establish sustainable local businesses to foster modernenergy
access in rural areas.