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Insights, Analysis and Debate: Vote for the Top NextBillion Article of 2019
Another year has come and gone, and it's time for NextBillion to select our most influential articles of 2019. As usual, we’re turning to you, our readers, for help. We've selected our 12 most-read articles of the year, and we invite you to vote for the one that impacted your thinking the most. You can vote up to 12 times during the voting period, which runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2. The winner will be announced on Jan. 3. As always, thank you for reading, contributing content to, and engaging with NextBillion!
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- Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, NextBillion Originals, Technology
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Shedding Light on Women in Solar: How – And Why – Off-Grid Solar Companies Should Hire More Female Sales Agents
Off-grid solar companies need large sales forces to reach last-mile consumers. But though they often struggle to build these sales forces, and though there's a large pool of female candidates to choose from, only 35% of their salespeople are women. Scott A. Roy at Whitten & Roy Partnership discusses the false assumptions that keep solar companies from hiring women, and explores the reasons why female sales agents are actually better all-around performers than men.
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- Energy
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Press Release: Rensource Secures $20M in Series A financing to Power Nigerian SME Productivity
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, only has 12 gigawatts of installed grid capacity, with just one-in-four Nigerians connected to the national power grid. In contrast, South Africa has 50 gigawatts. Rensource launched commercially in 2016 to address this problem
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- Press Release
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- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Can an Integrated Energy Distribution Model Turn Around Africa’s Ailing Utilities?
Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to provide quality, cost-effective services at a profit. The reasons for this include their inability to access affordable capital, and their low revenue collection rates. According to Simon Meier at Konexa, this is one reason that electricity access in the region continues to lag behind other geographies. He explores an innovative solution Konexa is piloting: an integrated distribution model that could provide a recipe for systems change.
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- Energy
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In Bihar, India, Solar-Powered Mini Grids Are Slowly Transforming Livelihoods
A silent revolution is unfolding not far from Bihar’s capital Patna, where residents are benefitting hugely from access to reliable, clean solar energy.
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- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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How Investors and Energy Providers Can Unleash Solar Growth in Uganda
The Ugandan solar market is a prime destination for local and international clean energy access investment. But many new investors are in the dark on critical issues, such as the maturity/development of local companies in the space, and the types of investments they need to propel their businesses forward. The United Nations Capital Development Fund and Challenges Uganda recently partnered to produce an in-depth market study designed to help Uganda’s fledgling solar industry take flight.
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Do Surveys Fall Short? Solving the Challenge of Predicting Mini-Grid Energy Usage in Africa
Half of Africa’s population is living without electricity, and mini-grids could connect at least 100 million of these 600 million people. But mini-grid developers struggle to profitably serve these potential customers, due in part to the difficulty of accurately forecasting their electricity demand. Analysts at CrossBoundary explore why this process is so complex and prone to inaccuracy, why surveying customers is often ineffective – and what can be done about it.
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- Energy, Technology
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- data, energy access, off-grid energy, research
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Press Release: Shell Foundation and FMO Collaborate to Help Achieve Clean Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa
Shell Foundation, a UK-registered charity, together with FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, announces the launch of the US$120 million Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF), with an initial close of US$45 million, providing catalytic financing to early to growth stage companies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) operating in the access to energy ecosystem.
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- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- energy access, SDGs
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