Power Africa is doubling down on investment in solar markets beyond the grid
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Right now USA and African leaders are meeting in Washington for the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit. The theme of the Summit is “Investing in the Next Generation” and one of the key elements required is the investment in and development of secure, clean energy supply.
Two out of three sub-Sarahan Africans — 600 million people — lack access to electricity. Earlier this summer, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced at an event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a new $1 billion initiative as a part of Power Africa dubbed “Beyond the Grid.” The initiative builds on more than 25 small-scale energy projects already in the Power Africa pipeline to catalyze a distributed clean energy deployment. To build the initiative and drum up investment, the US government pulled together 27 founding partners – including impact investors, venture philanthropists, clean-energy enterprises, and practitioners – who have committed to invest over $1 billion over the next five years to seed and scale distributed energy solutions for millions of African homes, businesses, schools, and other public facilities.
“At Green Power Labs, we developed a free solar map of the world. Based on free publicly available solar data, it is clear even at these less fine resolutions, that parts of Africa are excellent locations for distributed solar projects,” said Marlene Moore, VP Marketing at Green Power Labs. “One of Africa’s challenges is understanding the impact of heat and sand on the efficiencies of solar technologies. We have completed work to deepen understanding of these impacts for clients in other parts of the world and encourage community and energy leaders to plan appropriately for the special micro-climates in their communities.”
For more information on Power Africa visit: www.usaid.gov/powerafrica
