East Africa: Green energy revolution

East Africa: Green energy revolution

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity – 84% of them in rural areas.

In East Africa, this gap is being filled by small off-grid renewable-energy businesses who are providing 60% of new power to rural communities. They include companies selling solar home systems, mobile solar kiosks and power to refugee camps.

These hard-working green-energy enterprises are the future – so we’re working with our partner Energy 4 Impact to help them grow and reach more people. Together we’ve helped train their engineers, increase their commercial and strategic skills, improve their products and expand into new markets.

As rural communities get greater access to reliable, renewable energy, the knock-on benefits are immense:

• Healthcare, education, commerce and agriculture can all function more efficiently.
• The harmful use of indoor cooking fires, diesel generators and other fossil fuels has begun to fall.
• The use of renewable energy sources like solar power reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping to fight climate change.
• Street lighting increases people’s safety
• Electric lighting means businesses can remain open outside of daylight hours and children can continue studying after dark – giving them more chance to become the engineers of the future!