Energy Storage for Off-Grid Communities: A Structured Global Inventory of 2348 Real Sites, Multi-Criteria Comparison, and Site-Specific Recommendations

Isolated power systems serving remote communities require storage choices that account for technical performance and site constraints. This study presents a structured global inventory of 2348 documented off-grid electricity systems and a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of seven storage technologies using eleven criteria. Renewable energy is documented in 1319 systems (56.18%), including 1209 renewable-unique and 110 multi-renewable systems; 1029 systems (43.82%) are diesel-only. Within the renewable-unique subset, solar PV accounts for 1034 systems (85.53%), hydropower for 127 (10.50%), wind for 43 (3.56%), and bioenergy for 5 (0.41%). The baseline entropy-weighted MCDA gives the highest score to lead–acid (66.31/100), followed by flywheel storage (58.36), lithium-ion (57.89), and sodium–sulfur (56.60). Across fourteen deterministic sensitivity runs, the first-ranked technology changes, confirming assumption dependence. An operating storage family is identified in 259 systems (11.0%), but specific battery chemistry in only 41 (1.7%). Storage selection should therefore combine MCDA results with duration, logistics, maintenance, safety, climate, local-resource, and project-specific feasibility constraints.