Africa’s growing need for energy and its multifaceted energy landscape are at the core of the RES4Africa’s Access to Energy Programme. Through research, advocacy, capacity building, innovative thinking and on-field projects, the Programme aims at supporting knowledge development and on-field solutions to foster sustainable access to renewable energies in the whole continent, from North Africa to the Sub-Saharan area.
Context
In Africa, 600 million people are still living without access to electricity. Access to adequate quality and quantity of energy doesn't only mean to reduce inequalities and improve communities’ life conditions, but also to foster the industrialisation process, essential for socioeconomic development. Expanding access to energy is possible not only by bringing the grid to the most remote rural areas, but also by leveraging on off-grid solutions through innovative, sustainable solutions and business models built on proactive and cross-sectorial approaches.
Method
The Access to Energy Programme’s activities focus on the gap of the energy generation in both large scale and decentralized renewable energy solutions; in doing so, the RES4Africa’s Programme takes into account not only financial and economic aspects, but also the socioeconomic impact related to the lack of energy, proper infrastructure and quality of service available and the causes which undermine a larger energy access in Africa.
Actions
The Programme is articulated into different specific actions:
Connecting the Dots
A strategic series of analysis whose aim is to showcase what happened in the last 10 years in Africa and the Middle East, trying to answer questions like “What limited the renewable energies growth?” and “What is the current situation and where these regions are heading with their stated policies?”
Transformative Business Models
This action aims at understanding if it is possible to imagine new models and innovative businesses to foster investments in renewable energies; it is possible to observe new trends in the sector aiming at paving innovative ways to RE projects bankability.
Commercial and Industrial Market
A series of studies focusing on the African C&I sector, a segment that deserves a closer look and with enormous potential for RE development in the next decades.
Water-Energy-Food Nexus
An approach aiming at redesigning rural electrification by leveraging on synergies among stakeholders from different sectors: energy and non-energy players such as agri-food and health entities have the potential to create advantageous partnerships to optimize costs to reach the financial viability of RE projects.
