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Cell Phones Bring Power to Africans Living Off the Grid
Fenix International, a San Francisco startup making solar-power systems for people with no access to electricity grids, is expanding in Africa through a partnership with the continent’s largest wireless carrier.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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BBOXX to provide Togo with 300,000 solar home solutions
As part of its Vision 2030 plan, Togo drew up a gameplan focused on providing its population with access to electricity through a renewable-energy mix.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Rise of a New Asset Class: Can ‘PAYGo Finance’ Connect Investors to Low-Income Customers?
Lendable has pioneered a marketplace lending platform that connects alternative lenders in East Africa with impact and institutional debt investors, to provide financing for leased assets like solar panels and motorcycles. According to BFA, providing these alternative lenders with structured debt financing could potentially give rise to a new asset class: PAYGo finance. If successful in raising funds from investors at scale, the Lendable approach could bring financing for low-income individuals full circle.
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How Flexible Financing, Solar Panels and Data Could Be Key to Financial Inclusion
With over 1 million units installed in the past four years, the PAYGo financing model is already unlocking significant growth for the off-grid solar industry. But the sector also faces formidable challenges. FIBR, a project by BFA in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, is exploring ways PAYGo solar can leverage data to make better point-of-sale decisions, customize product offerings, engage and retain agent networks, inform future follow-on products, and build linkages with other financial service providers.
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Off-Grid Devices Draw Drinking Water from Dry Air
Robust systems are being developed that rely on readily available energy from the sun, are scalable and can work even in arid regions—where a third of the world’s population lives, often in poverty.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
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Three Ways Entrepreneurs Can Tackle Climate Change (Hint: It’s Not Just About Scale)
There are ways entrepreneurs can make sizeable impacts on climate change without Facebook-like growth curves. Jean-Louis Racine says investors should follow the lead of the venture capital sector and support startups that won't grow or be profitable. Traditional impact metrics such as goods sold, customers served, revenues generated or jobs created no longer apply. The best way to catalyze a climate technology market is to help ensure that innovative high-risk, low-growth ventures don't fall through the cracks.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Energy Solutions Shouldn’t Just Tick Boxes, They Should Transform Communities
Simple electrification around the world, without the existence of a suitable ecosystem, has not led to transformation, writes Sarah Alexander of the SELCO Foundation. That ecosystem needs to be created and strengthened by a host of local stakeholders to complement efforts of last-mile energy enterprises to transform the lives of the poor – and understanding the demand for the solution is critical.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment
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Investors and Entrepreneurs in Africa Take Note: Price of Solar’s Dropping While Demand’s Increasing
A number of factors are combining to create a favorable environment for decentralized clean-energy systems – and strong investment opportunities – in emerging markets, according to Ankit Mishra of Premise Data. Most noteworthy, energy use in non-OECD countries is expected to rise by 71 percent through 2040, and the cost of renewable energy is projected to decline rapidly.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing, Technology
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