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Press Release: Bamboo Capital Partners Appointed as International Fund Manager by the Government of Haiti and the World Bank for USD$17 Million Energy Access Fund
The objective of OGEF is to electrify 200,000 households in Haiti within the next 10 years. At present, less than one in three Haitian households have access to electricity, which is often unreliable. In rural areas, electrification rates are as low as 5%.
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- Press Release
- Region
- Latin America
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A Decade in, Why the Pay-As-You-Go Solar Sector is Maturing and Brightening
This month marks nine years since Jesse Moore and Nick Hughes first sketched out a plan for M-KOPA - one of the early leaders in the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar market. Since then, M-KOPA has installed PAYG solar systems in over 750,000 African homes, and now receives over 30 million customer micropayments per year, writes Moore. He estimates that PAYG solar will soon reach over 10 million customers and surpass a billion dollars in cumulative revenue – but he cautions that the industry should gird itself for a wave of consolidation as it embarks on its second decade.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Uganda Shakes up Electricity Access Amid Global Infrastructure Reset
About 1 billion people worldwide still lack access to electricity, according to the latest data, with efforts moving too slowly to meet a U.N. goal of providing clean, affordable power to everyone on the planet by 2030.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Microsoft Opens First $100 Million Africa Development Centre in Kenya and Nigeria
“The Africa Development Centre will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact,” Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President at Microsoft said.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: Utilities 2.0 Coalition Unveils Vision for Utility of the Future in Low Energy Access Countries; Announces 1st Demonstration
Power companies in Uganda target win-win-win business models that accelerate electricity access, while benefiting utilities, private sector service companies and energy-poor consumers.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why are Investments Surging in Off-Grid Energy? A Q&A with Wood Mackenzie’s Benjamin Attia
In partnership with Energy 4 Impact, Wood Mackenzie recently released "Strategic Investments in Off-grid Energy Access: Scaling the Utility of the Future at the Last Mile." Among its many headlines, the research found that total annual investment in the off-grid energy access sector surpassed $500 million in 2018 for the first time. To find out what's fueling it and what it means for the millions living off the power grid, we spoke with Benjamin Attia, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and an African solar PV markets expert.
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Are Rural Customers Ready to Consume More Energy at the Right Price? New Mini-Grid Research Offers Intriguing Results
Setting appropriate pricing is crucial to any business, but it's especially challenging for mini-grid developers serving rural customers in emerging countries. If the price is too high, customers can’t afford to buy enough power. If it's too low, mini-grids risk their commercial viability. Authors at CrossBoundary discuss a new report exploring the impact of massive price reductions on energy consumption and mini-grid revenues. The results are striking, and potentially significant for both providers and their customers.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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PAYGo Solar at a Crossroads: Why the Industry Must Choose Between Protecting Customers and Satisfying Investors
Over $500 million in investor financing has poured into off-grid solar in the past year. But while that's an exciting development for the sector, there is a downside. As BrightLife CEO Stefan Grundmann explains, PAYGo solar operators are facing heightened investor pressure to expand their reach and aggressively deliver greater sales. In response, many companies have taken new measures to boost business – some of which have led to troubling new risks for customers. Grundmann explores this issue, and how the industry and its investors should respond to it.
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