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Analysis: Powering Peace: Can Renewable Energy Help End Africa’s Conflicts?
Conflict is now at its highest level since World War II, driven by the breakdown of the international rules-based system, climate degradation, inequality, and demographic pressure—forces that are particularly acute across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: African Development Bank Approves €93.9 Million to Expand Last-Mile Power Connections Under UREAP Phases I & II in Uganda
The funding will close a critical gap for the compensation of project-affected persons and completion of outstanding works, ensuring the project delivers its full development impact.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa’s Energy Future Needs More Than ‘Trickle-Down Electronomics’: Why the Debate Around False Trade-Offs Risks Leaving Millions Behind
Africa’s energy access debate is increasingly focused on the question of whether to prioritize household access or industrial and productive uses that can drive economic growth. But as Ryan Kilpatrick and Patrick K. Tonui at GOGLA argue, the deeper challenge is about understanding how electricity demand, income generation and productivity evolve in practice — and determining how best to balance the technologies, delivery models, financing structures and timelines involved in widespread electrification. They discuss these overlapping factors, and push back against the concept of “trickle-down electronomics” — i.e., the assumption that prioritizing industry will enable governments to expand grids to unserved areas and allow households to afford electricity over time.
- Categories
- Energy
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SIDBI and Shell Foundation Launch US $3.1 Million Initiative to Expand Access to Green Finance for Nano-Entrepreneurs
Backed by a $3.1 million grant from Shell Foundation, the EN-Trans RSF provides a second-loss risk coverage to Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), including SIDBI as a lender, for loans extended to low-income communities.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Poor Battery Recycling Drives Lead Poisoning Risks in Africa’s Solar Energy Boom
Lead-acid batteries are widely used in many low-income markets because they are cheaper than alternatives like lithium-ion batteries, but safely recycling them requires costly infrastructure that is often lacking.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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SolarAid CEO John Keane is Stepping Down
SolarAid today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, John Keane, has decided to step down from his role in June
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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responsAbility Invests Up to USD $15 Million in South East Asia’s Skye Renewables
With this funding, Skye Renewables plans to scale its project portfolio in Southeast Asia, aiming to increase its installed capacity to several hundred MWp within five years.
- Region
- South Asia
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Farming Under Solar: How Agriphotovoltaics Can Transform Rural Livelihoods in India
As India scales up solar energy, a critical question has emerged: Can this transition deliver clean power without displacing farmers from their land? According to Laxmi Sharma, Bidisha Banerjee, Subhodeep Basu and Ashok Gulati at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, the country's renewable energy expansion has been led by large, ground-mounted solar projects, often located on agricultural land. But while this model has been effective in scaling solar capacity, it has also created a disconnect between the energy and agriculture sectors, while limiting participation among farmers. They explore how agriphotovoltaics (Agri-PV) can address these issues by enabling the cultivation of crops beneath or between panel arrays, and discuss the pros and cons of different Agri-PV operating models.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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