India
- Powering rural healthcare with distributed clean energy in India: Along with a coalition of close to 20 Indian organizations from the healthcare and energy sectors in India, Power for All hosted a virtual event - National Action Roundtable on Powering Rural Healthcare with Clean Energy, on 5 August 2020. This roundtable focused on the goal of achieving better rural health outcomes powered by clean energy, presented solutions around policy frameworks, technical specifications, operations and maintenance, and finance models that would help form a roadmap for states to take forward as actionable solutions. This is building on the work from April when this coalition published an open letter calling on the government to solarize all existing public health centres in rural India that do not have access to electricity, resulting in renewed interest and buy-in from various government departments to move forward with improving rural health infrastructure.
- Energy & Health Integration: Strengthening health infrastructure in Jharkhand: On August 21st, Power for All communications director Divya Kottadiel spoke at a webinar hosted by the Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED), Asar Social Impact, and SELCO Foundation on "Strengthening Health Infrastructure in Jharkhand through DRE", that was attended by health and energy sector professionals, non-profits, and government agencies, including the state renewable energy agency, JREDA.
- Jharkhand stakeholder meeting: On August 25th, Power for All hosted a virtual kick-off meeting for organizations working in Jharkhand, India, aimed at understanding each other’s work and to explore ways in which this group could work collaboratively to amplify the beyond access narrative and achieve shared and complementary goals more efficiently and effectively with existing resources.
Agriculture
- Powering Agriculture: Uganda media learning session: On September 11th, Power for All organized a learning session with the media in Uganda to introduce the Powering Agriculture Campaign and facilitate knowledge sharing on the productive use of renewable energy for agriculture. Speakers highlighted the importance of renewable energy to scale agricultural productivity, shared new developments in policy and financial support, and discussed the need for public-private partnerships as an important mechanism for advancing agriculture to meet global challenges in food security.
- Re-localization of food supply chains in Africa: On July 30th, Power for All’s head of research Rebekah Shirley joined a panel of experts in a webinar, re-localization of food supply chains in Africa, organized by the Africa Clean Energy Technical Assistance Facility (ACE-TAF) where she talked about at the nexus of energy and agriculture.
Healthcare
- Tweet Chat: Strengthening the power sector post COVID-19 pandemic: On September 2nd, Power for All’s chief campaign officer William Brent moderated a twitter conversation between The Rockefeller Foundation and Smart Power India leadership team to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on electricity access and the steps that will be required to strengthen the Indian Power Sector going forward.
Energy Access
- Energy Catalyst: “Lessons from the Frontline”: As part of the Energy Access Innovator peer-to-peer learning series brought to you by Innovate UK programme Energy Catalyst, Power for All organized two webinars during the month of July and August with Emma Colenbrander, head of the Global Distributors Collective (GDC), and Alistair Gordon, Lumos Global CEO, who talked about about the last-mile distribution market, distribution innovation, and Nigeria’s off-grid solar pay as you go (PAYGO) market.
- Africa’s first mini-grids progress report launch: On August 13th, Power for All facilitated the official virtual launch of the Benchmarking Africa’s Minigrids report by the Africa Minigrid Developers Association (AMDA). You can watch the full webinar recording here and also listen to a podcast interview with Aaron Leopold, the CEO of AMDA as he talked about the barriers facing the sector and what can be done to overcome them. The webinar presentation with the main findings from the report can be accessed here.
- How effective coordination can fast track universal energy access: On August 13th, Power for All chief campaign officer, William Brent participated in a webinar, How effective coordination can fast track universal energy access, organized by the Africa Clean Energy Technical Assistance Facility (ACE-TAF) where he talked about the need for coordination and collaboration within the off-grid solar sector. The webinar brought together panelists from across the continent including government officials, representatives of national coordination mechanisms, and industry associations.
- ONE HOME, ONE PLANET 2020: On August 28th, Power for All’s chief campaign officer William Brent participated in IKEA’s two-day virtual sustainability event ONE HOME, ONE PLANET 2020 (OHOP), an action-orientated virtual sustainability event with an ultimate goal to inspire action and spark change in the areas of climate change, inequality, and resource scarcity, and to collectively build back better and create the future we all want to be part of.
Team updates
- Anand Pathanjali joined our team in India, based in Ranchi, to coordinate Power for All's state-focused work in shifting the narrative around energy access, amplifying messages around DRE, and facilitating linkages between energy and energy-enabled sectors in Jharkhand, India. We’re also delighted to have Eleanor Burks, our partnership and development Manager, based out of San Francisco. She will be supporting our ongoing fundraising efforts and help strengthen partner relationships. The research team is happy to welcome Donna Gaya, research analyst intern, based out of Nairobi. She will be working alongside the PEAK team to help collate existing data to build an evidence support base for decentralized renewable energy.
Upcoming events
- World Energy Storage Day: On September 22nd, Power for All’s chief campaign officer William Brent will be speaking at this year’s World Energy Storage Day. With a rising focus on the effective integration of renewable energy, the importance of electric vehicles, and reliable, resilient energy supply, energy storage is becoming an increasingly important tool in the electricity ecosystem.
- Africa Energy Forum 2020: Power for All is a proud media partner of the upcoming Africa Energy Forum (aef), a global investment meeting for Africa’s power, energy, infrastructure, and industrial sectors. The event will take place online from 20th October – 26th November 2020. The Forum brings together decision-makers in Africa's energy sector to form partnerships, identify opportunities, and collectively move the industry forward.