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Pay-As-You-Go Solar Power Takes Off in Africa
In Kenya the cell phone is being used to transform the way that people consume energy. M-KOPA Solar – the word 'kopa' is Swahili for 'borrowed' – is a Nairobi-based business that has pioneered the idea of "pay-as-you-go" solar energy in Africa.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, solar
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51 Breakthrough Technologies to Defeat Poverty
Simple technologies like Kenya's M-Pesa mobile money system can have a huge impact in the developing world. Offering something genuinely new, reliable and, above all, cheap, they can stitch together communities, catalyze markets, improve economies, and ultimately change lives.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
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Inside Citi’s Plan to Deploy $100 Billion for Cities, Renewables, Climate
Today, Citi, the global banking giant, is announcing its next-gen sustainability strategy that includes an eye-popping number: $100 billion over 10 years for “lending, investing and facilitating” activities focused on mitigating climate and other sustainability solutions.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Impact Investor Global Partnerships Invests in Solar to Connect the Poor With Light
To this day, an estimated 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. That is over a billion people who struggle to refrigerate their food and medicine, study at night to further their education, or charge their mobile phones. Electricity is crucial to human well-being and development, and lack of access to it is a huge barrier to overcoming poverty in the developing world.
- Categories
- Energy
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Shell Foundation May Invest $75 Million in Clean Energy in India Over Next 5 Years
Shell Foundation, an independent charity set up by Anglo-Dutch energy group Shell, plans to allocate about half of its $150 million deployable funds in India's clean energy sector over the next five years, a top official said. The foundation may not invest the funds directly into projects but in for-profit companies or financial institutes, which will in turn invest in solutions to make cheap energy options accessible in rural and urban poor areas. "We want to take a marketbased approach where we can fund or forward grants to companies who are directly or indirectly providing the bottom of the pyramid with access to energy," said Pradeep Pursnani, deputy director-chief operating officer at Shell Foundation.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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Greenlight Planet Receives Funding of $10 Million
Solar energy product company Greenlight Planet has raised $10 million (Rs in funding led by Fidelity Growth Partners India to support its distribution expansion efforts in India and Southeast Asia.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- impact investing, solar
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M-KOPA Solar raises $12.45m in latest funding round
Kenyan startup M-KOPA Solar has closed its fourth round of investment through a US$12.45 million equity and debt deal led by LGT Venture Philanthropy, which will be used to expand the company’s product range, grow its operating base in East Africa and license its technology to other markets.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- solar
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This ‘Eco Stove’ Does More Than Cook Your Dinner
In Uganda, more than 28 million people in the country are without electricity. To put that into perspective, the entire population of the beautiful landlocked east-central African nation is less than 38 million people.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar