Solar Home Systems (SHSs) have gradually become a household name in Africa. Pioneering efforts to make a new technology available to rural households have over the years developed into a few mass markets for the "base of the pyramid". This paper focuses on the lessons that can be learned from these experiences. Have policy makers and donors supported SHSs in an efficient way? Are they a luxury item or an essential element in the development process? Can they trigger or facilitate rural electrification? The answer to these questions is that photovoltaic (PV) systems can play a useful role for rural development and rural electrification purposes, but the desire to deploy them on a more massive scale to rural Africans demands a new type of energy policy support, creating new partnerships with local SMEs. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.