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Press Release: DFC and Rockefeller Foundation Sign MOU to Invest in Solutions to End Energy Poverty
The MOU seeks to achieve economies of scale by bringing together two major initiatives: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Powering an Inclusive Covid-19 Recovery and DFC’s Roadmap for Impact, the agency’s new strategy for maximizing its development impact.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy
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Husk Power Uses Rice Husk to Generate Electricity in Rural India
Using a proprietary technology, the company has combined and synchronised solar PV, biomass gasification system and batteries to deliver highly reliable, 24×7 power. The biomass-gasification system is a proprietary design and uses agricultural waste as its feedstock, enabling benefits of reducing agri-waste burning on farm lands and creating an additional revenue stream for farmers. This proprietary technology makes it 100 per cent renewable electricity generation company.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Press Release: BioLite Achieves Company Milestone, Reaching 1 Million Lives With Clean Energy
BioLite announced that through the company’s efforts to reach rural off-grid communities, BioLite’s clean energy solutions have impacted over one million lives in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- off-grid energy
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Documenting a Historic Year in Emerging Markets Business: Vote for the Top NextBillion Article of 2020
Like many of you, we're not sorry to see the end of 2020. But as we look back on this historic, tragic year, NextBillion would like to take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary work done by enterprises, NGOs, researchers and others in the emerging markets business sector. They have risen to the occasion in ways that can best be described as heroic – while sharing their insights in nearly 100 COVID-19-focused articles on our platform. Several of these pieces are included in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest, which launches today. We invite you to read these articles and vote for your favorites – the contest runs from Dec. 21 to Jan. 2.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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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
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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
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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
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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