This Call aims at financing and/or co-financing projects that grant access to renewable energy in particularly deprived territories in the African continent, with a special focus on electricity from individual systems (kits, Solar Home Systems) and/or collective ones (micro or mini grids) and clean sources for cooking and heating. Particular attention will be paid to services generated when access to energy is granted (access to water, drinking water, agriculture, trade) so as to contribute to the economic and social development of the recipient area.
Specific objectives:
- Involving beneficiaries in adequate training activities, so that they can take on an active role and increase their skills, thus ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project;
- Engaging beneficiaries and local stakeholders right from the beginning. The presence of a local actor in the project partnership (e.g. an NGO, a local company or women’s cooperative) and the collaboration with diverse actors (enterprise consortium, NGOs, researchers and local authorities, etc.) with complementary skills are strongly encouraged;
- Ensuring the sustainability of the economic model, which will have to be replicable on a large scale and become independent from financing.
Renewable energies costs keep decreasing, so they represent a great opportunity to tackle the serious issue of electricity access in the African continent: in some cases, decentralized production of renewables has already proven to be a more efficient solution and one that better responds to local needs compared to the extension of the national electric grid, which is impossible or too expensive in some geographic areas, and usually connected to traditional fossil fuel thermal plants. In such remote areas, where the national electric grid is not reachable, off-grid solutions based on renewable energies are the best alternative to grant access to energy.
This call for proposal aims at supporting initiatives that include the objectives identified within the area of intervention: “Environment”. This area integrates environmental and economic dimensions to promote a sustainable, fair and inclusive development, and create a society that is able to protect the interests of present and future generations.