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What We’re Learning Every Step of the Energy Ladder
We spent the last year at Acumen collecting impact data on companies across our portfolio using our Lean Data approach, which harnesses the power of technology to give voice to low-income customers and allows us to provide quality customer feedback to drive business decisions for our investees. From these surveys, our entrepreneurs will get real insight into their customers: who they are, how and where they utilize energy, how much energy they use, and what they spend on a weekly or monthly basis, among other valuable feedback.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Creating ‘Solavores’ By Thinking Inside the Box
Solavore, launched last year, sells solar ovens in the developed world and uses the profits to subsidize clean-cooking technology for the 2.7 billion people in the developing world for whom wood fire is the only cooking option, with the inevitable result: lung damage.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- climate health, solar
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Weekly Roundup: Appreciating banks, emojis for health, d.light’s destination
This week in our roundup: A major new study shows mobile finance is essential, but highlights the role of old fashioned banks; the language of emojis could improve global health; and solar lamp pioneers d.light are well on their way to reaching their goal of 100 million customers by the start of the next decade.
- Categories
- Health Care
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PEG completes $7.5 million round to expand activities in West Africa
PEG, an off-grid solar company in Ghana, announced that it has closed a $7.5 million Series A round. The funding will be used to expand operations in Ghana, build out the management team, and to enter Ivory Coast. PEG has over 10,000 customers and operates 29 service centers in 7 regions of Ghana.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Creating a Less Taxing Climate for Off-Grid Solar Energy
As countries are seeing the huge power and potential of decentralized renewables – such as off-grid solar – to combat energy poverty, taxes and tariffs on quality distributed energy products are no longer certain at all, and the trend looks set to continue.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Tags
- off-grid energy, solar
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Report: Off-Grid Electricity, Mobile Money Could Help Plug Africa’s Rural Power Crunch
A combination of renewable energy sources off the national grids could be a solution to supplying electricity to rural areas across Africa, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed on Monday.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Sierra Leone Solar Push Aims to Bring Electricity to All by 2025
Sierra Leone aims to provide electricity to all of its 6 million citizens by 2025 in a push to boost the economy, expand crucial services such as healthcare, and reduce dependency on aid, officials said on Wednesday.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Trending: Blending, The Fad for Mixing Public, Charitable and Private Money
MEETING the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals will require additional investments of $2.5 trillion a year in things like health care and education for the world’s poorest people, according to UNCTAD, a UN agency. A further $13.5 trillion is needed by 2030 to implement the Paris climate accord, according to the International Energy Agency, a watchdog group. It is enough to drive development types to drink—which may be how they came up with the term “blended finance”, a heady cocktail of public, private and charitable money.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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