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Adapt or Die: Accelerating Growth Amid a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
The clean cooking sector has made incredible strides in the past decade, with bilateral organizations and the development community working together to create standardized environmental impact goals. Now the industry is facing a new set of scaling challenges, say Jessica Alderman and Ron Bills of Envirofit International. The two share advice for enterprises seeking to level up, including how to avoid mission creep.
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- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Freeing the Data to Build the Off-Grid Energy Sector: A Case Study from Tanzania
Mini-grids and solar home systems are showing promise in many parts of Tanzania and other countries. But Christopher Arderne at the World Bank and Pepukaye Bardouille at the IFC flag a key challenge: Lack of coordination and information-sharing between government and the private sector means off-grid developers may target sites that will become grid-connected before they can recover their investments. Arderne and Bardouille share some free new data tools that blend local participation and infrastructure mapping to help off-grid players avoid this risk.
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- Energy, Technology
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Why Health Benefits Could Drive Customer Value for Solar Lighting and Clean Cookstoves
Solar lighting and improved cookstoves have multiple benefits. But according to a new FINCA International survey of end-users in Uganda, the benefits customers value most involve the products' perceived contributions to a cleaner, healthier household. Scott Graham and Anahit Tevosyan at FINCA explore how highlighting these benefits can help product manufacturers and distributors – and the donors and investors who support them – to strengthen the uptake and usage of off-grid products.
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- Energy, Environment
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Machine Learning in PAYGo: What You Need to Know Before You Jump In
Machine learning is an exciting technology with plenty of potential applications in social impact business. But as Jacob Winiecki at BFA points out, the hype around the approach may make it tempting to jump in without first determining if it's the right tool for the job. He offers a clear run-down of how machine learning actually works in practice, along with three concrete steps for how a PAYGo enterprise can implement the technology, based on the work BFA’s FIBR Project has done with ZOLA, a leading PAYGo solar operator in Africa.
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- Energy, Finance, Technology
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Three Key Trends in Social Impact: Announcing NextBillion’s Special Series for 2019
NextBillion is pleased to announce the topics of our three special series for 2019: “By Women, For Women: Leaders and Innovations in Gender Equity,” “Scaling Up Without Selling Out,” and “New Frontiers in Renewable Energy.” Each series will be managed by a different member of NextBillion’s editorial team: Check out the descriptions and email the appropriate editor if you’d like to explore a potential guest post on any of these topics. We’re looking forward to seeing how the discussion in these series will develop in the coming months.
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- Energy, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Igniting Growth in the DRC: How Renewable Energy Can Power Urban Development
Off-grid solar systems have been a key to bringing energy access to the rural poor across East Africa. Yet in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just 9 percent of the population have access to electricity. Flavia Howard, a strategy consultant for social entrepreneurs, argues that in spite of the disruption caused by disease and war, her research shows that the country presents a compelling market for distributed energy solutions.
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- Energy
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Electricity is Just the Beginning: Why Off-Grid Solar Opens the Door to Value-Added Services
Lack of energy access is a much-discussed issue in rural households and businesses across the developing world. But according to Mansoor Hamayun, CEO of BBOXX, electricity is just the beginning: Solar home systems could lay the foundation for a host of related services that could transform the quality of life in off-grid communities. Hamayun discusses “Tomorrow’s Rural Home,” BBOXX’s vision for the off-grid home of the future, which shows how solar energy access could create new markets and power economic growth in Africa and beyond.
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- Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Stupid Stoves: Why Rebranding Won’t Solve the Clean Cooking Alliance’s Problems
In her recent interview with NextBillion, Clean Cooking Alliance CEO Dymphna van der Lans described the organization's ambitious new vision. But her words didn't sit well with Warm Heart Worldwide founder Michael Shafer, who raises a pointed question: After nearly 10 years of massive investment, hype and exposure, he asks, "Where is the Clean Cooking Alliance now? Getting rebranded and starting over!" Shafer argues that the Alliance's current efforts fail to address the major issues that have hampered it from the start – and proposes a different way forward – in this provocative post.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology
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