-
Taking Cold Chains Off-Grid: How Solar Powered Cold Rooms Could Dramatically Reduce Food Waste in Sub-Saharan Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 50% of produce perishes before reaching end customers, largely due to a lack of viable cold chain solutions. Maria Knodt at Energy 4 Impact and Ruth Kimani at CLASP explore how solar-powered cold rooms can address this issue, and highlight some significant technical and business model challenges that could undermine their impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Investing, Technology, Transportation
-
Milling on Mini-Grids: How Africa’s Largest Crop Could Go Diesel-Free
Milling is a key use of energy for people living off-grid in rural Africa, allowing them to turn grains like maize – the region's most commonly produced cereal – into flour to make staple foods. Using solar mini-grid electricity to power these mills would save money, reduce air pollution and boost electricity sales for mini-grid companies. But as analysts at CrossBoundary point out, diesel mills still dominate the market. They explore the challenge of competing with diesel, and how innovations in solar mills are changing the landscape.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
-
Analysis: Africa: Energy Efficiency for Developing Countries – Pivoting From Fewer Inputs to More Outputs
Energy efficiency (EE) is often marketed as a tool to save energy and money. The oft-repeated mantra is doing "more with less", namely producing more goods with less energy. But, as set out in a recent World Bank report (which I co-authored), EE can do something that is often much more important for developing countries: it can produce the additional goods and services needed to raise standards of living.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
CrossBoundary Offers up Its Mini Grids Business Model for African Peers to Benefit
The Kenyan financial services business has been developing rural mini grids across Africa and has announced plans to show its rivals how such networks can thrive, in a bid to accelerate access to electricity on the continent.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Bboxx and EDF Cultivate Partnership to Deliver Solar-Powered Farming in Togo
Bboxx, a next-generation utility, and EDF, a global leader in low-carbon energies, are expanding access to solar-powered irrigation systems for thousands of farmers in Togo.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
IFC and Kobo360 Partner to Support Innovative Solutions in Nigeria’s Agriculture and Health Sectors
The International Financial Corporation (IFC) in partnership with African e-logistics start-up, Kobo360 has announced a call for innovators all over the world to bring climate-smart, Temperature-Controlled Logistics (TCL) cooling solutions to Nigeria to help the country address food waste challenges, support its health sector, and reduce its energy consumption.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- startups
-
The Nexus of Agriculture and Energy in Africa: Five Lessons for Bridging the Ag-Energy Gap
Agriculture should be a key market for rural energy providers in Africa. Growing agribusinesses and smallholder farmers need modern energy to thrive, and rural energy enterprises need reliable consumers to anchor demand for their services. Yet as Seth Silverman and Tom Chaplin at Factor[e] Ventures explain, a gap remains between the two industries, and ag-energy projects struggle to draw commercial investment. They explore some promising ways to fill that gap, sharing lessons from a new report.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
-
Press Release: Husk Power Systems Becomes First Minigrid Company to Power 100 Communities, 5,000 Small Business Customers
Today, Husk Power Systems, (huskpowersystems.com), the leading rural energy company operating renewable minigrids in Asia and Africa, announced that it has achieved two industry firsts: surpassing 100 community minigrids, and serving more than 5,000 micro-enterprise customers.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.