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Can India Transition to Solar Without Leaving Farmers Behind? Lessons from Rajasthan’s First Farmer-Owned Agri-PV Pilot
Earlier this year, Rajasthan’s first farmer-owned Agri-PV plant was inaugurated under the Indian government’s PM-KUSUM program. As Laxmi Sharma and Subhodeep Basu at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) explain, Agri-PV involves installing elevated, ground-mounted PV panels so farmers can generate electricity and additional income while cultivating the land underneath. They share learnings from ICRIER's work supporting the early implementation of this model in India, where the key challenges have involved not technical design and engineering questions, but the difficulties of coordinating people, processes and institutions — and establishing and maintaining farmer trust.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment
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SolarAid Appoints Nick Pearson as Chief Executive Officer
Nick joins SolarAid at an exciting point in our journey as we continue working towards a future where everyone, everywhere has access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Mini-grids May Not Be the Answer: Why Shifts in Technology and Funding Have Changed the Energy Access Outlook in Africa
There is intense pressure to reach universal energy access by 2030, which requires a further 666 million people to be electrified, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. And according to Stewart Hicks at Bamboo Capital Partners, mini-grids are often viewed as a key part of the solution, leading to growing calls for more private sector investment in this technology. But he argues that this focus on mini-grids may be distracting from faster, more cost-effective approaches. He explains why mini-grids — despite being a good solution in some areas — have several under-reported constraints, and explores some emerging alternative electrification models that may present a more realistic path toward greater energy access in Africa.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Philippines Leads the World in Rush to Solar as Power Prices Soar
The rooftop solar rush has resulted in $407 million in panel imports in the three months through May, a 145% increase from a year earlier, according to trade data from China, which accounts for most global supply.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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D.light Takes PAYGo Solar From Impact Funds to the London Stock Exchange
The listing brings d.light’s cumulative PAYGo receivables purchasing capacity to $1 billion — a milestone that few in the off-grid energy sector thought achievable when the company pioneered the first-ever PAYGo securitisation back in 2020.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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IFC Backs CrossBoundary Access with US $10 Million Equity Investment
This investment supports the continued construction and expansion of CrossBoundary Access’s portfolio of distributed renewable energy assets, including mini-grids, battery-as-a-service (BaaS), and adjacent technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zafiri Announces USD $176 Million Commercial Launch to Accelerate Energy Access via the Private Sector Cross sub-Saharan Africa
Zafiri will deploy patient equity into distributed renewable energy (DRE) companies and projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, including mini-grids, solar home systems, productive-use energy solutions, and clean cooking enterprises. At least 50% of the platform’s capital is expected to support mini-grids, solar home systems, and clean cooking.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Record Sales Highlight Off-Grid Solar’s Critical Role in Electrification
The East Africa region and Nigeria experienced the highest sales, with subsidies and results-based financing (RBF) programmes helping expand affordability and accelerate market expansion, pushing sales of products purchased through pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) up by almost 50%.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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