Optimizing Results-Based Financing for Off-Grid Energy: Why Localization Can Provide a Pathway to More Effective Investment

AUDREY DESIDERATO / MARTIJN VEEN Source: https://solarenergy.einnews.com/article_detail/553025067/7z8s_XduvY-a15XW The recent High-level Dialogue on Energy, the first U.N. gathering of world leaders in more than 40 years solely devoted to energy issues, highlighted the urgent need for action to achieve universal access to energy by 2030. With 770 million people lacking access to electricity – 75% of them in sub-Saharan Africa –…

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Lockdown’s done, SuperSolarSchool’s begun

Our first post-Covid SuperSolarSchool took place from 23 to 27 August 2021. The group was smaller than usual, only 7 people were able to attend on these dates, but as business slowly gets back to normal, so will the number of participants. Our attendees were extremely understanding of the unavoidable postponements to the course caused…

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Report: Universal Access to Sustainable Energy Will Remain Elusive Without Addressing Inequalities

Sustainable solutions must target African countries left behind in quest for global energy access Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/06/07/report-universal-access-to-sustainable-energy-will-remain-elusive-without-addressing-inequalities WASHINGTON, June 7, 2021 — During the last decade, a greater share of the global population gained access to electricity than ever before, but the number of people without electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa actually increased. Unless efforts are scaled up significantly…

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Refrigerators and Water Pumps have reached a critical crossroads

Here’s what the off-grid solar sector should do next By Jenny Corry Smith, Senior Manager at CLASP, and Riley Macdonald, Associate at CLASP, Co-Secretariat to Efficiency for Access Source: https://medium.com/efficiency-for-access/refrigerators-and-water-pumps-have-reached-a-critical-crossroads-heres-what-the-off-grid-solar-8103d0b3350e This blog is the second in a four-part series featuring key findings from Efficiency for Access’ 2021 Solar Appliance Technology Briefs. This series provides a synthesis of cross-cutting…

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Protecting women and girls during the global recession: Solar-powered appliances enable distance learning and enhance health outcomes

Visit source: https://www.gogla.org/about-us/blogs/protecting-women-and-girls-during-the-global-recession-solar-powered-appliances JAN 15, 2021 Guest blog by Sam Grant and Hannah Blair While disrupting the daily lives of billions, the impacts of COVID-19 are felt the hardest by the world’s most vulnerable people. This series, developed by the Efficiency for Access Coalition, explores the implications of the pandemic on off-grid communities in sub-Saharan Africa…

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The Public Option: How Smart Tariff Subsidies Can Boost Minigrids and Solve Africa’s Rural Energy Access Dilemma

When it comes to operating private minigrids, the overarching expectation is that such projects need to be commercial in order to attract the long-term private infrastructure capital they need to grow. However, many African governments are unwilling to allow cost-reflective pricing regimes, which is a critical piece in the bankability puzzle. While government actions to…

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Solar plus storage better than grid connection for remote households

The Western Australian government has praised the use of solar and batteries to provide power to remote households and businesses, after Western Power replaced costly 230km of costly grid connections with stand-alone power systems that slashed costs and improved reliability. The deployment of 52 stand alone power systems by Western Power has now been completed,…

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Sunrise Course Training Resumed After Lockdown

After very challenging economic circumstances and a disrupted 2020 due to COVID-19, Sunergy with their training partner, JVS Project, resumed their Sunrise (Mambakweda) PV Off-grid course with renewed drive and determination. Participants, eager to improve their foundational knowledge of Solar and PV systems, joined with us to successfully complete our first training course this year.…

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SADC creates centre for renewable energy to stimulate rural electrification

DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Tuesday it has established a centre for renewable energy to coordinate and support rural electrification within 16 member states of the regional bloc. Kudakwashe Ndhlukula, the executive director of the SADC centre for renewable energy, based in Namibia, told a…

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