Although community-specific pricing may vary within these reported ranges, these results do suggest the grid-tied configuration is likely to be less expensive than the photovoltaic configuration only at low unit electricity prices. The photovoltaic configuration has lower GHG emissions than the grid-tied configuration across nearly all possible unit GHG emissions for grid electricity (Figure ). The five countries (China, India, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda) evaluated all have country-level household grid electricity prices above the 0.07 USD•kWh -1 cost threshold (they ranged from 0.081 -0.186 USD•kWh -1 ) that resulted in minimal cost increase (1 -7%) and, except for Uganda (0.159 kg CO2eq•kWh -1 ), all had grid GHG emissions that resulted in substantive (45 -58%) GHG savings with the photovoltaic system. Therefore, when solely considering the location-specific grid electricity unit price and unit GHG emissions, all five countries have higher per capita costs with the grid-tied configuration as well as higher GHG emissions. To navigate the tradeoffs between cost and GHG emissions in the choice between the photovoltaic or grid-tied energy configuration, the dollars per Mg of GHG emissions (USD•Mg CO2eq -1 ) were quantified to better understand the efficiency of using funds to mitigate GHG emission in this way. As a benchmark against which to compare, a near-term CO2 price in the United States to achieve a 2050 net-zero CO2 emission target is 34 -64 USD•Mg CO2 -1 in 2025 and 77 -124 USD•Mg CO2 -1 in 2030. For the NEWgenerator, the cost of mitigating life cycle CO2 emissions by selecting the photovoltaic configuration (instead of the grid-tied configuration) would be approximately -253 USD•Mg CO2eq -1 in India, -300 USD•Mg CO2eq -1 in China, -72 USD•Mg CO2eq -1 in Senegal, -15 USD•Mg CO2eq -1 in South Africa, and -348 USD•Mg CO2eq -1 in Uganda. The cost of mitigating carbon through configuration selection is not only below the benchmark proposed above (the 2025 and 2030 United States pricing) but also negative. This suggests that GHG mitigation from selection of the photovoltaic configuration will reduce system cost and GHG emissions for any country with electricity price above 0.07 USD•kWh -1 . In addition to the adequate cost and environmental justification for this selection, there are intangible benefits for use of photovoltaic energy in locations which lack grid infrastructure or experience inconsistent electricity supply.