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In the recent years international multilateral banks and bilateral donors have been increasingly financing and implementing renewable energy programs and projects in the developing countries. At the same time there are increasing interests to present renewable energy as an answer both to climate change and poverty alleviation. However, the results of renewable energy programs have varied in this respect. Renewable energy projects have often remained as marginal and often temporary solutions serving as pre-electrification and in some cases the introduction of high tech renewable energy solutions such as solar panels may have even increased indebtedness and thus vulnerability of poor households. This paper is based on a study of World Bank’s off-grid renewable energy program in Laos where 15.000 households have been provided with solar home systems.  The aim of this paper is to discuss, firstly, what kind of knowledge World Bank produces on the linkages between renewable energy, climate change mitigation and poverty reduction and what are the articulated and un-articulated assumptions of the benefits on which the renewable energy program has been built. Secondly, we analyse how these assumptions meet the different actors in different levels and how the expectations are met compared to the outcomes of the project. Thirdly, we analyse how different aspects of power and knowledge influence the outcome of the project. The research material consists of policy and project documents, expert interviews and village fieldwork made in Laos.