Find out about recent activities and the upcoming events where Power for All will be profiling decentralized renewables—and get involved!
September highlights: spreading the word
Find out about recent activities and the upcoming events where Power for All will be profiling decentralized renewables—and get involved!
September highlights: spreading the word
Globally, Power for All joined representatives from a wide mix of philanthropy, faith-based organizations and civil society, who came together under the SHINE campaign to focus on how the investment requirements, types of capital and philanthropic approaches can work better together to accelerate the end of energy poverty. As a SHINE steering committee member, Power for All has worked to help identify gaps and opportunities to scale DRE. SHINE on!
At the UN General Assembly, Power for All partner SEforALL released Energizing Finance, a report series assessing the flows of capital for energy access. The headline: only 1% of global finance committed to energy access is targeted to decentralized renewables -- 1% for a sector that, by some estimates, will be the source of energy access for 75 million households in Africa by 2025! We congratulate SEforALL and its partners for this important contribution of data and analysis.
Power for All continues to get the word out on behalf of the DRE sector. We coordinated a sector briefing for the energy and Africa editors at The Economist, working closely with campaign partners GOGLA and the Rockefeller Foundation to present a global, all-inclusive overview of the DRE sector, progress to date and expectations for the future. In addition, our Platform for Energy Access Knowledge (PEAK) research team partnered with GTM Research on the first of what we expect to be a series of co-authored pieces - How Deregulations Could Improve Reliability for Cash-Strapped African Utilities.
In India, we supported the launch of a new ground-breaking study by the Council of Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) on the positive impact of distributed rooftop solar on rural health centers, supporting on media outreach as well as co-developing a research summary. As part of the effort, we also coordinated a webinar hosted by Smart Villages and Low Carbon Energy for Development Network and featuring CEEW, SELCO Foundation and Oxfam India (see below). In addition, we worked with Smart Power India to highlight the important role mini-grids played during the recent flooding (see this resulting Forbes article - How Off-Grid Renewable Energy Came To The Rescue In India's Flood Zones). And we got the word out about Mitsui’s investment in OMC Power through solar trade media outlet PV-Tech.
We continue to spotlight the amazing work happening in India, and if you haven’t yet, please check out and follow the new publication Powering Rural India (nearly 600 subscribers and growing). Our plan is to gradually extend the publication’s remit beyond India to include other key countries and regions.
In Nigeria, Power For All represented the sector in a range of policy, finance, technology and trade high-level meetings, providing input on achieving the SEforALL goals in Nigeria, raising awareness about the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy (NREEEP), developing the National Renewable Energy Framework Bill and scaling biogas production. The various fora included the National Council on Power annual meeting, a body of federal and state-level power policymakers, the Abuja International Trade Fair (together with campaign partner GVE Partners), The Funding Space.
The Funding Space session, which also includes USAID, GIZ and All-On, will focus on de-risking the renewable energy sector and look at better financing models in Nigeria. Also at the of September, Power for All will also participate in two workshop focused on the Niger Delta: the 9th Niger Delta Dialogue organized by AA PeaceWorks and sponsored by the European Union to analyze and review the Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SIWP) developed by the Inter Ministerial Committee and cutting across key areas including infrastructure, environment, oil and gas, security, livelihoods and jobs; and the “Access to Energy for a Rural Niger Delta Renaissance” workshop organized by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) discussing practical barriers to delivering electricity to rural areas.
October: campaign events calendar
Abidjan, 3-5 October: Africa Mini-Grids Community of Practice
Our Sierra Leone campaign director Ami Dumbuya will be presenting at the Africa Mini-Grids Community of Practice gathering of government decision makers. The goal of the meeting is to create a community of senior peers within African governments, who can support each other in the design and implementation of policies and programs aimed at accelerating energy access and rural development through the application of mini-grid power systems. You can learn more about our work in Sierra Leone here.
Brussels, 23-25 October: Global Science Technology and Innovation Conference (G-STIC)
Power for All is a “thematic partner” for the energy track of G-STIC. The event aims to help the international community, including the UN system, understand what is happening in technology innovation related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event, which will bring together leading innovators from the private sector and research institutions, is organized by VITO (the prime research and technology organization on cleantech and sustainable development in Belgium) and its international partners AIT (Asian Institute of Technology), IITD (Indian Institute of Technology) and TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute).
Maputo, 25-26 October: Renewables in the Electrification of Mozambique
Power for All partner ALER, with the support from the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Program (RECP), is bringing together European and African renewable energy businesses, developers and policy-makers to focus on the contribution of renewable energy technologies for the electrification of Mozambique, in line with its National Electrification Strategy under preparation to achieve universal access by 2030. Participants will exchange information about the investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector, including in the on- and off-grid markets.