Energy
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Improved Cookstoves (ICS) & Climate Finance Webinar
Improved Cookstoves (ICS) & Climate Finance Webinar 1362 774 Jamie

ICS and Climate Finance: Synergising Efforts for Sustainable Development

The global shift toward sustainable development and climate resilience has highlighted the link between energy, health, and the environment. Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) are key to reducing household air pollution, reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and providing economic benefits to economies. Climate finance—funds from developed nations and other sources—supports developing countries in reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. Integrating climate finance mechanisms is crucial to scaling ICS adoption and transitioning to cleaner energy. By providing financial support and investing in capacity-building, research and development, sustainable and locally driven solutions for clean cooking can be developed and aid in the reduction of GHG emissions and combat climate change.

Given this, on the 30th of October 2024, the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) funded GIZ programme “Promotion of Climate-Friendly Cooking: Kenya and Senegal” co-hosted and resumed the webinar series on “Promoting ICS for reaching NDC targets”. The third webinar entitled “ICS and Climate Finance: Synergising Efforts for Sustainable Development” provided insights to the climate finance landscape and opportunities for clean cooking projects and explain how setting NDC targets can result into climate financing.

This webinar explored the role of climate finance in promoting ICS. Participants learnt about various climate financing mechanisms, the synergies between NDCs targets and climate financing. Best practices and success stories and innovative strategies to encourage collaboration among stakeholders were shared.

To view the recording of the webinar and presentations please use the links down below:

Presentation
Webinar Recording – French
Webinar Recording – English

Resources shared during the webinar:

  1. Investment criteria indicators | Green Climate Fund
  2. Climate–friendly cooking: demonstrating CO2 emission reductions
  3. Readiness and preparatory support | Green Climate Fund
  4. Targets | Climate Action Tracker
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Business Foundations For PUE & Mini-grids In Africa
Business Foundations For PUE & Mini-grids In Africa 1565 880 Jamie

Techno-economic and Business Model Foundations for Productive Use of Energy and Mini-grids in Africa 

Webinar 2: Building a business case for productive use of energy (PUE) in mini-grid development and operations

On the 16 October 2024, the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) in partnership with the African Association for Rural Electrification (CLUB-ER) under the Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGE-EA) project, convened the second webinar of the three-part series: “Techno-economic and Business Model Foundations for Productive Use of Energy and Mini-grids in Africa”. The second webinar focused on “Building a business case for Productive Use of Energy (PUE) in mini-grid development and operations”.

The aim of this webinar was to provide an overview of how to utilise datasets to develop business cases for Productive Use of Energy (PUE).  During the session we explored key case studies and learnings for how to effectively develop delivery models and business models for integrating PUE into mini-grid projects to support more impactful and sustainable energy access.

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) provided valuable insights into PUE delivery models, business models, and the integration of these models into rural mini-grids drawing examples from the Africa Mini-grid Program. During the session, Africa Mini-grid Developers Association (AMDA) provided their perspectives and experiences on business cases for 5 different types of energy usage. The presentation unpacked the challenges such as the lack of financing and equipment which these businesses experience.

To view the recording of the webinar and presentations please use the links down below:

Webinar Recording
Presentations

The next webinar in the series will be focused on Mobilising PUE technologies and finance to catalyse mini-grid development.  

This activity was funded by Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGEEA) project funded with UK aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access programme.
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Regenerative Agrivoltaics in Africa for Improved Livelihoods & Climate Resilience
Regenerative Agrivoltaics in Africa for Improved Livelihoods & Climate Resilience 1600 720 Jamie

Regenerative Agrivoltaics in Africa for Improved Livelihoods, Climate Resilience, and Agricultural Decarbonization webinar

On the 10th of October 2024, the African Climate Action Partnership in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) co-convened a webinar entitled “Regenerative Agrivoltaics in Africa for Improved Livelihoods, Climate Resilience, and Agricultural Decarbonization”. The webinar showcased case studies of agrivoltaics systems in  Africa, highlighted best practices and trade-offs, and explored potential applications and research areas in Africa to improve livelihoods, adapt to climate change, and support national Nationally Determined Contribution’s (NDCs) and local low-carbon sustainable development strategies.

The webinar began with a brief introduction to agrivoltaics and an overview of the benefits, challenges and insights on the different configurative agrivoltaics. During the session, numerous benefits from agrivoltaics usage in Africa were explained and how the various business models were used to improve rural communities water irrigation systems and cold storage for crop yields.

The webinar continued by providing a few case studies of the effectiveness of agrivoltaics on food, energy and water. The first case study focused on community-based solutions for food, energy and water resilience. It outlined how solar energy can provide basic energy usage whilst simultaneously providing great crop yields and better working environments for community members. The second case study gave an overview of the impacts of agrivoltaics on food production, energy generation and water conservation in East Africa. The implementation of a configurative agrivoltaics can support farmers by minmising the need for irrigation as it provides crops with shade which aids in the growth of crops. This indicates crops provided greater yields with less water and energy needed.

Furthermore, these case studies showcased how agrivoltaics can support livelihoods, maintain and uplift rural community’s economy. Moving onto the second last segment of the webinar shared the opportunities and co-benefits of decarbonizing agriculture with regenerative agrivoltaics. Points on greenhouse gas mitigation, water conservation, soil health improvement and biodiversity conservation are providing long impact improvement to climate change risks.

The final segment of the webinar focused on how to map biophysical features to depict where it is most suitable for crops to be yielded East Africa. A suitability analysis is a tool used to assess and analyse if a space is beneficial for agrivoltaics in East Africa. The tool illustrated best areas to produce agrivoltaics yielded crops as well as how agrivoltaics could assist with areas under the risk towards climate change factors. 

If you would like to view the webinar recording and read through PowerPoint presentation, please follow the links below:

Presentation
Webinar Recording
Webinar Resource (RE:Harvesting the Sun)
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Analysing the potential to unlock Energy-Agriculture Synergies
Analysing the potential to unlock Energy-Agriculture Synergies 6912 3456 Jamie

Webinar 1: Analysing the potential to unlock Energy-Agriculture synergies

On the 1st of July 2024 the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) and the African association for Rural Electrification (CLUB-ER) under the Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGE-EA) project launched a new webinar series. The three-part webinar series entitled Techno-Economic and Business Model Foundation on Productive use of Energy and Mini-grids in Africa will unpack how productive use of energy (PUE) can be utilised beyond its basic household needs to empower agricultural use and support business, the agribusiness sector, on a larger scale. 

The webinar series kicked-off with the first webinar on “Analysing the potential to unlock Energy-Agriculture Synergies“. It began with an introduction to the GGEEA project, outlining the work being done in the renewable energy space. In addition, an overview of analytic approaches to assess the potential for renewable energy potential and agricultural value chains was given. The webinar drew on the tools and methodology of the Clean and Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Landscapes (CTSL) project, as well as, analytic approach and tools delivered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). During the webinar we explored the geo-spatial modelling to map PUE potentials for agricultural development.  

To view the recording of the webinar and presentations please use the links down below.

Webinar Recording
Webinar Presentations

The data sharing and web tools on how to monitor energy usage to cut down on costs on energy usage that were shared during the webinar are as follows: 

REopt 
REexplorer 

Following the webinar, NREL shared some examples of University Partnerships of demonstration farms. These are mostly focused on production and farming, but many are also starting to pilot electricity technologies for learning for educational purposes and research for the sector. NREL frequently collaborates with University partners to set up these types of projects.

Examples of University partnerships for demonstration farms shared by NREL:

Papao Demonstration Farm 
APNRF Uganda Rice Project 

The next webinar in the series will be focused on building a business case for productive use of energy in mini-grid development and operations.

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Exploring models for public-private collaboration in clean energy access
Exploring models for public-private collaboration in clean energy access 2560 1707 aflp

Exploring models for public-private collaboration in clean energy access

On the 8th September 2023, the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) together with Camco, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGEEA) and African Association for Rural Electrification (CLUB-ER) hosted an official side session entitled “Exploring models for public-private collaboration in clean energy access” during Africa Climate Week. This session explored the key enabling mechanisms that facilitate mini-grid deployment as well as focusing on the challenges and successes experienced by both the private and public sector in aligning priorities and actions.

Steven Payma (RREA Liberia) kicking off the official AfCAP side session at Africa Climate Week 2023

The first part of the session focused on how the public sector is working towards increasing energy access in Africa , the acceleration of the deployment of mini-grids and the current challenges and opportunities that African countries face when it comes to electrifying rural areas using Kenya and Liberia as examples.  The panel discussion kicked off with Steven Payma from the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency in Liberia (RREA). Payma explained that REA in Liberia has attracted their private sector to invest into the public by enabling policy and regulation environment partnerships in the public-private sector for clean energy access in Liberia.  Payma, indicated that Liberia’s National Electrification Strategy targets are set to achieve universal access to energy by 2030. So far, 30% of Liberia’s population in urban areas have access to electricity and only 8% of rural areas have access to electricity.  Payma explained that Liberia has both solicited and unsolicited projects running with the involvement of the private sector.  He noted that it is key to involve the private sector to attract investment in order to increase energy access and create an enabling policy and regulatory environment. A key message coming out from his discussion was that the national energy utility needs to be unbundled and the sector needs to open up to independent power producers. Such public-private collaborations would support clean , universal energy access.

Eng. Maxwell Ngala (REREC, Kenya)  during the AfCAP official side session at Africa Climate Week 2023

The second speaker was Eng. Maxwell Ngala from the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation of Kenya  (REREC). Ngala was tasked with explaining the current challenges to electrifying rural areas in Kenya and what the opportunities are for mini-grids in aiding the achievement of this target.  Ngala explained that REREC has a pilot project running in the area of Kenya, called Wajiha. This project has rolled-out 35 mini-grids through mission projects. Ngala indicated that the main challenges faced are technical, institutional and financial. When it comes to planning and the deployment of mini-grids, it’s important to understand the available technologies and to determine which are the most suitable for the context to meet the needs of the local community, Ngala explained.

Ieva Indriunaite (Camco) speaking during AfCAP’s official side session at Africa Climate Week 2023

The discussion shifted towards the private sector. This portion of the panel discussion focused on exploring options for improved collaboration, specifically on how the private sector can act as an implementing partner in realising governments’ NDC targets.  Ieva Indriunaite from Camco kicked off this part of discussion by explaining the challenges Camco experienced in funding viable mini-grid projects.

Indriunaite explained that when it comes to the gaps in energy access and viability for climate finance the key challenge is limited access to funding which makes scaling a challenge for the continent. Indriunaite expressed that inorder to enable the large-scale deployment of mini-grids, it requires blended finance. Attracting private sector funding requires regulatory frameworks that are clear, transparent and implemented in a timely manner to de-risk financing.  A key message from Indriunaite, is that governments should view mini-grid developers as partners, not as competitors. The private sector can mobilise solutions quickly and these solutions can be integrated into national grids and taken over by the public sector at a later stage.

The next speaker was Aaron Leopold from EnerGrow. Leopold shared some of his experiences of what enables effective collaboration with the public sector. He was in agreement with Indriunaite’s statement to not only involve the private sector in the later stages of the national plan for mini-grid deployment. Leopold explained there is a need for collaboration between the public and private sector at the start of the design process.  He indicated that Energrow works to accelerate electrification by looking at the demand side. The organisation looks at how to improve energy demand in rural communities so that mini-grid companies can improve their tariff. A key takeaway message from Leopold was that there is a need to find creative ways to collaborate in the public-private partnerships to support mini-grids, for example, micro-financing and engaging with consumers to understand what they need in their localised contexts.

Aaron Leopold (EnerGrow)  during the AfCAP official side session at Africa Climate Week 2023

Our last speaker for the panel discussion was Suleiman Babamanu from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Babamanu shared his insights on how the RMI aimed to support the transformation of energy systems in Africa and what steps they are taking to enable greater private sector investment. He noted that it is possible to enable greater private sector investment by linking energy access to economic development which remains a challenge for Nigeria. Babamanu explained that RMI does collaboration through understanding the context of the country. For example,  Nigeria works on 2 main pillars; 1) Scaling and distributing energy resources, and 2) Deploying efficient demands for productive use. Babamanu indicated that the African Mini-grid Programme (AMP) aims to ensure that government and private developers are working together to create an enabling environment to ensure the transformation of energy systems and greater private sector investment through applying cost reduction techniques and innovative businesses.

Suleiman Babmanu (RMI) ending off the AfCAP official side session at Africa Climate Week 2023

In closing,  the panellists had an opportunity to give their final reflections on how we can align the priorities of the public and private sector when it comes to energy access. Ngala shared his thoughts and expressed that it is important for the private and public sectors not to work in silos. Indriunaite explained that the private sector lacks accessibility to planning and national planning documents. She felt that it should not be seen as a competition between the private and public sector as both sectors have a common goal of providing energy access to all.  Ngala, agreed with Indriunaite on the lack of access to information and data and stated that local data needs to be generated and accessible to both public and private users to enable planning for mini-grids in Africa.

AfCAP aims to continue engagements around creating enabling environments for mini-grid deployment through the Africa Mini-Grid Community of Practice (AMG-CoP) and the Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGEEA) project. If you would like more information on these activities please contact us on info@africanclimateactionpartnership.org

This activity was co-funded by AfCAP and GGEEA. GGEEA is funded with UK aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access programme.
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Mini-grids take centre stage in achieving SDG goal 7 for Africa 
Mini-grids take centre stage in achieving SDG goal 7 for Africa  1424 641 KM

Mini-grids take centre stage in achieving SDG goal 7 for Africa 

Providing access to reliable and affordable energy is essential to economic growth within Africa. Despite years of progress toward improving energy access, COVID-19 set back advances leading to a decline in energy access across the continent. It is estimated that up to 30 million people lost access to electricity due to the economic impacts of the pandemic. Slow progress and disruptions caused by COVID-19 means that Africa is not on track to achieving SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy). Approximately 90 million people per year will need to receive energy access, with approximately $200 billion required to make this happen in Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA) to meet the SDG7. This feat can not only be accomplished through extending central grids; however, we believe that decentralised renewable energy (DRE) will play an important role in achieving this goal. 

Mini-grids and household solar systems are expected to account for 50% of new connections in Africa. Supporting the planning and deployment of mini-grids projects is thus critical to advancing energy access within SSA. The Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access (GGE-EA) project, funded with UK Aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access Programme, aims to support the deployment of mini-grids through building the capacity of rural electrification officials in SSA> 

Between 21-23 March, CLUB-ER and AfLP travelled to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to attend the ARE Energy Access Investment Forum as part of the GGE-EA project. The forum brought together more than 400 players from across the public and private sectors, development finance institutions and energy and climate investors. The event aimed to facilitate partnerships between businesses and investors to accelerate DRE investment. Over the three days, speakers reflected on key issues of scaling up investment to meet the energy access challenge, driving productive use of energy (PUE), upskilling producers and users, digitising and data availability, and many more. 

(Hary Andriantavy, CLUB-ER, speaking during the Desert to Power Initiative Session)

One of the key themes emerging from the event was ensuring that demand for energy is matched with affordable and reliable supply. Albert Fuchet, from Schneider Electric, in their keynote speech outlined the importance of  affordability, awareness and availability as  key elements for implementing DRE. Beyond simply providing energy access, ensuring that consumers could afford to purchase electricity for their needs, were aware of their productive use options and could be provided with reliable access is essential to the sustainability of mini-grid projects. 

 

(High level Panel: Towards a holistic approach to universal electrification – integrating utility-scale 7 off-grid investment strategies)

Many private and public sector players highlighted that supply and demand were often misaligned for mini-grid systems. On one hand, consumers were not utilising enough energy, highlighting the need to drive PUE. Barbara Izilein, Senior Advisor to MD/CEO of REA Nigeria, highlighted how in some instances, communities were accustomed to not having electricity and as such, communities needed to buy into the idea of PUE as a new income stream.

On the final day, various public-private sector dialogues were held to discuss challenges faced by both sectors and opportunities to address these. These dialogues included sessions focused on: West Africa, Mozambique, East Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Central and Southern Africa, Nigeria, Southern Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo. These sessions hosted representatives from rural electrification authorities (REAs) as well as businesses working within the region. Both parties were given the opportunity to share their progress, reflect on challenges, and discuss opportunities for collaboration. 

Public-private sector engagements are a key workstream of the GGE-EA project. GGE-EA supported the attendance of 21 representatives from various CLUB-ER member REAs across the continent (providing funding support for 10 of these members). These participants appreciated the project and event organisers for facilitating opportunities to meet and engage with other actors across Africa’s mini-grid sector. In addition, Hary Andriantavy, the project lead from CLUB-ER, chaired one of the streams of these dialogues. Experiences from the event and new connections made will play an important role in the delivery of the GGE-EA – helping to shape future public-private engagements and providing key opportunities for the project’s work to establish a reliable database in mini-grids. 

Through building the capacity of public sector officials and decision-makers, GGE-EA seeks to create an enabling environment in governments for the large-scale implementation of mini-grids to facilitate enhanced energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). GGE-EA is implemented in partnership between CLUB-ER and the Africa Mini-Grids Community of Practice (AMG-COP) of the Africa LEDS Partnership (AFLP) at SouthSouthNorth. This project is funded with UK Aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access Programme

 
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WEBINAR: Assessing Opportunities for Agricultural Productive Uses of Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Development of a New Geospatial Mapping Tool
WEBINAR: Assessing Opportunities for Agricultural Productive Uses of Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Development of a New Geospatial Mapping Tool 1334 751 aflp

On 25 March, the AfLP AMG-CoP in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) hosted a webinar on a new geospatial mapping tool. This webinar was the third in a  series of regional learning events focused on analysis of opportunities for agricultural productive uses of energy in minigrids. The first webinar focused on introducing the over all context of the project, and the second focused on techno-economic analysis of potential renewable energy microgrids. 

This webinar presented the methodology used to estimate the geospatial distribution of prospective agricultural PUE loads, and introduced a new mapping tool developed by NREL to visualize PUE demand across Africa in order assist developers, planners, policymakers and others in understanding where and what PUE opportunities may be of highest priority.

Project Background and Objectives

Use of advanced energy technologies for agricultural production has multiple benefits including: 1) Intensifying production and reducing land-use pressure on related deforestation and biodiversity loss; 2) Strengthening agricultural income and employment in rural areas and allowing for more production near the home, which has particular value to women; 3) Enabling production of high nutrition and high value crops which tend to require more processing and irrigation supported by distributed renewable power; 4) Improving access to reliable energy sources to support irrigation and other productive uses such as cold storage or transportation of food; 5) Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and other air pollutant emissions and their resulting impacts on the community and environment; and 6) Beneficial use of food waste products for energy generation.

Within this context, the U.S. Department of State is supporting the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to implement the Clean and Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Landscapes (CTSL) Program in Africa and Southeast Asia. This program seeks to:

  • Increase access to advanced, clean, reliable, and affordable energy sources to improve agricultural productivity, food and water security, and enable resilience
  • Accelerate progress toward development and economic growth and stability goals
  • Increase in-country technical and analytical capacity to support transition to self-reliance

Over the last year this program has been providing technical assistance to three countries in Africa—Zambia, Kenya and Mozambique—to develop methodologies and approaches to assess opportunities for agricultural productive uses of energy to help improve viability of clean energy minigrids. The CTSL is now excited to partner with the Africa LEDS Partnership to odder regional peer learning on this project and the methodologies being developed to a broader network of interested country stakeholders.

View presentations here. You can also watch a recording of the webinar via this link.
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WEBINAR: Techno-Economic Analysis of PUE Minigrids in Africa
WEBINAR: Techno-Economic Analysis of PUE Minigrids in Africa 1211 685 aflp

On 22 February, the AMG-CoP in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) hosted a webinar on Techno Economic Analysis of PUE Minigrids in Africa. This webinar was the second in a series of regional learning events focused on analysis of opportunities for agricultural productive uses of energy in minigrids. This first session, held on December 14, 2021, introduced the overall context and background of the project and outlined the overall approach and methodology to estimate annual electric load profiles for key agricultural applications. This second session focused on techno-economic analysis of potential RE microgrids with PUE loads and associated levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) using the REopt microgrid optimization tool.

Project Background and Objectives

Use of advanced energy technologies for agricultural production has multiple benefits including: 1) Intensifying production and reducing land-use pressure on related deforestation and biodiversity loss; 2) Strengthening agricultural income and employment in rural areas and allowing for more production near the home, which has particular value to women; 3) Enabling production of high nutrition and high value crops which tend to require more processing and irrigation supported by distributed renewable power; 4) Improving access to reliable energy sources to support irrigation and other productive uses such as cold storage or transportation of food; 5) Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and other air pollutant emissions and their resulting impacts on the community and environment; and 6) Beneficial use of food waste products for energy generation.

Within this context, the U.S. Department of State is supporting the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to implement the Clean and Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Landscapes (CTSL) Program in Africa and Southeast Asia. This program seeks to:

  • Increase access to advanced, clean, reliable, and affordable energy sources to improve agricultural productivity, food and water security, and enable resilience
  • Accelerate progress toward development and economic growth and stability goals
  • Increase in-country technical and analytical capacity to support transition to self-reliance

For the last size months this program has been providing technical assistance to three countries in Africa—Zambia, Kenya and Mozambique—to develop methodologies and approaches to assess opportunities for agricultural productive uses of energy to help improve viability of clean energy minigrids. The CTSL is now excited to partner with the Africa LEDS Partnership to odder regional peer learning on this project and the methodologies being developed to a broader network of interested country stakeholders.

View the recording of the webinar via this link.

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