Powering Jobs
As part of the ongoing Powering Jobs campaign, the third round of steering committee meetings was held in June, starting with the global committee on June 6, followed by the Kenyan, Nigerian, and Indian committees on June 8, 9, and 10, respectively. The meetings aimed to get a consensus on the thematic areas for advocacy at the global and country levels and identify key launch platforms for the global and country reports. The third Ugandan steering committee will be convened on June 29, followed by Ethiopia in early July 2022.
The research team has completed all the data analysis and also the draft report of the Powering jobs survey. This draft version will be sent for peer review to global and regional experts before it is finalized.
India 25x25
As part of the #PoweringJobs campaign, the Powering Jobs India report will be launched in collaboration with our in-country partner, Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN), at their Energy Forum scheduled for September 30, 2022. CLEAN is also part of the India steering committee and a long-time strategic partner for Power for All in India.
Our India Country Director, Debanjana Choudhuri, spoke as a panelist at the Economic Times Energy World Leadership Summit 2022, held on June 17, 2022. The panel discussion was on the role of "Distributed Renewables: Rejuvenating RE Growth through Wider and Equitable Energy Access." The other panelists in the event included Upendra Bhatt, Co-Founder, and Managing Director, cKinetics, Rohit Chandra, Co-Founder, OMC Power, and Ronnie Khanna, VP, Deloitte India.
Our Global Partnerships and Campaigns Director, Suranjana Ghosh, gave the keynote address at a webinar held by the Center for Science and Environment on “Clean Energy for Energy Access: Mini-grids in the Global South.” We also supported this session by inviting our partners, Equatorial Power in Uganda and Arc Power in Rwanda, as panelists to share their perspectives on the changing landscape of mini-grids in these countries. You can watch the recording of this event here.
In Jharkhand, our State Program Manager, Ashwani Ashok, spoke on the role of DRE in the agriculture sector at the Clean Energy Solutions Summit and Exhibition. It was organized by Life Education and Development Support (LEADS) with support from the European Union.
We also published an article highlighting Jharkhand’s new solar policy and its role in ensuring a just transition in the state.
Powering Agriculture
In our Powering Agriculture campaign, we developed four knowledge products covering key areas of impact on the sector. They target key stakeholders in the agriculture and energy nexus as well as policymakers, development partners, and financiers of the renewable energy industry. The knowledge products include:
- A fact sheet on how DRE can enhance agro-productivity in Tanzania. It highlights the current state of DRE-powered agro-processing activities in Tanzania, drawing on the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) analysis.
- A fact sheet on the importance of financial inclusion in agriculture. Financing the sector can help countries improve food security and adapt to the effects of climate change, mitigate shocks, boost productivity, and improve livelihoods.
- A summary of research conducted by Power for All in three farming communities in Mukono district, Uganda. The study aimed to understand how energy access can impact livelihoods. It found that villages with energy access have better human development outcomes, including education and living standards.
- A blog about stimulating energy demand in farming communities through extending affordable finance for productive use of energy assets.
Power for All Joins Cool Coalition Network
Power for All is now part of the Cool Coalition network, which recognizes that ensuring the transition to efficient, climate-friendly cooling for all is fundamental for climate action and sustainable development. Together with its partners, the Cool Coalition works around three key pillars to accelerate the global transition to efficient and climate-friendly cooling:
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Advocacy: Highlighting benefits and opportunities of efficient, climate-friendly cooling.
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Action: Mobilizing commitments to action and targets from leaders in government, business, and civil society and connecting these to global policy processes.
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Knowledge Exchange: Building an active learning community that breaks down silos and promotes cross-cutting approaches.
Utilities 2.0.
In Uganda, a technical working group on interconnection was formed and it held its first meeting on May 30, 2022. The group comprises of representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Rural Electrification Program, Electricity Regulatory Authority, Power for All, Umeme Ltd, Equatorial Power, and Rockefeller Foundation/Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. Its objective is to coordinate the execution of all activities in the interconnection plan. Alignment and coordination of the interconnection plan are critical to ensure that all parties are working well together and to develop guidelines based on the lessons learned from Uganda’s first solar mini-grid to be interconnected.
U.2.0 at Enlit Africa
Sumaya Mahomed, Uganda’s Country Director, and U.2.0 Manager, moderated a panel discussion on the “Customer-centric approach for affordable electrification” held on June 7, 2022, at the Enlit Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. The panelists included our partners in the U.2.0 Project, Umeme Ltd, Equatorial Power, Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Rockefeller Foundation.
Newzroom Afrika Interview
Sumaya Mahomed also spoke to Newzroom Afrika on the need for an integrated approach to address electricity challenges in South Africa.
Powering Health
In India, the energy transition roadmap report for the health sector in Jharkhand is scheduled for release in July 2022 along with our state partners, the Center for Energy and Environment Development (CEED) and the Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA). It is informed by a detailed survey carried out by Power for All’s team in collaboration with JREDA in the state’s different districts assessing the status of electrification of health centers over the last three months. Some of the key findings from the survey of the 607 health centers in six districts of Jharkhand are:
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Close to 43% of the health centers do not have access to grid electricity
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Over 95% of the electrified health centers report high occurrences of unscheduled or erratic power outages ranging from 8-10 hours a day.
The complete research findings will be integrated into the Energy Transition roadmap for the state’s health sector report.
In Zambia, our in-country partner ACE TAF is co-organizing an investment forum with the Ministry of Energy, Zambia, on July 8, 2022. Power for All and the Department of Health will be launching the Action Plan for solarizing health centers in Zambia developed as part of this campaign. This forum aims to bring funders and investors into the off-grid sector in Zambia and allows us to showcase the efforts of the coalition we formed in Zambia. The coalition of various health and energy nexus stakeholders in Zambia developed an Action Plan and a Call to Action as commitments of both the Energy and Health Ministries on solarizing health centers in Zambia.