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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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SunCulture Closes $10 Million Solar Irrigation Securitisation
"The transaction will allow SunCulture to recycle capital tied up in customer receivables and expand solar irrigation financing."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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PIDG and Impact Fund Denmark Invest $11.5 Million in Africa GreenCo
Africa GreenCo is a regional energy trader and intermediary offtaker. It buys electricity from renewable energy producers and sells it to utilities, private-sector customers and markets within the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). The
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Sun King Joins Kenya’s Growing Smartphone Financing Race
"Sun King’s move comes as Kenya’s smartphone market becomes harder to simply define by ownership."
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Hijau Raises $10 Million to Scale Distributed Solar Projects Across Indonesia
Founded in 2017, Hijau develops rooftop solar projects mainly for commercial and industrial customers. The company follows a zero-capital-expenditure model, allowing businesses to install and use solar systems without making large upfront investments in equipment.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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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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Wind and Solar Projects in Kenya and South Africa Don’t Always Benefit the Communities That Host Them – Study
If green energy investments are to deliver on their promise of development, governments and investors need to start by asking communities what they consider a fair deal. Land, livelihoods, culture and ways of life may be just as important as financial returns.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Miller Center Capital Invests in Koolboks to Expand Solar-Powered Cold Storage for Micro-Entrepreneurs in Ghana
The financing will help Koolboks fulfill a large purchase order from a leading multinational FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company that will distribute solar-powered chest freezers to microfranchise vendors in Ghana.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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