- The Rockefeller Foundation announced a total investment of $US10.9 million to advance African-led clean energy solutions at COP29 in Baku.
The philanthropic organisation will invest $2.1 million to create the African Energy Futures Initiative; $3 million into the African School of Regulation; $400,000 to launch the inaugural Clean Cooking Delivery Unit in Kenya; $300,000 to help integrate off-grid solar into national electrification strategies in nearly two dozen countries; and $5 million to advance the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s effort to deploy over 1,000 mini grids in rural communities.
The announcement comes on the heels of The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet’s (GEAPP) initial $10 million commitment to providing technical assistance funding for new energy transition projects in 11 African countries and across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), in support of Mission 300, a World Bank Group and African Development Bank (AfDB) led initiative.
“Africa’s leadership is paving the way for a sustainable energy future on the continent and around the world,” said William Asiko, Vice President and head of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office. “From mini grids to clean cooking solutions, from policies to regulations, The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to partner with African leaders to scale innovations that can transform vulnerable people’s lives and livelihoods.”
The Rockefeller Foundation calculates that across 72 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, and the Middle East, there is an 8,700 terawatt-hour (TWh) “Green Power Gap,” which represents the renewable energy capacity that must be generated by 2050 for these countries to meet both global development and climate goals. And while an energy transition is already taking hold in many advanced and emerging markets, 42 of the 72 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to approximately 600 million people living without electricity, while a significantly large population lack access to affordable and reliable energy.
Creating the African Energy Futures Initiative (AEFI)
Supported by an initial $2.1 million grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, the African Climate Foundation (ACF) launched the AEFI, a new funding and technical assistance platform focused on African-led and African-designed energy transition solutions. AEFI aims to provide multi-year funding to centers of excellence for energy systems modeling and analysis in Africa. In consultation with leading energy modeling experts and African organizations and with additional funding support from Schmidt Sciences and The Rockefeller Foundation, the Energy for Growth Hub led the design of the initiative and secured initial resources for the AEFI. Initially incubated within the Cape Town, South Africa-based ACF, which is the first African-led re-granter working at the nexus of climate and development on the continent, AEFI is actively seeking additional funding partners to support its ambitious vision.
Supporting Zambia’s 1,000 Mini Grid Initiative
In support of the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s Presidential Initiative with the objective to deploy over 1,000 mini-grids across rural Zambia, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) have designed a two-phased approach to address the unique characteristics of the Zambian mini-grid market and rural electrification challenges in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation. With $5 million in funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, SEforALL, via the UN Office for Project Service (UNOPS), will support the disbursement of a financing incentive that will go to private sector developers on a performance-based contract to help prioritize productive uses and public institution energy demand, while providing critical technical assistance to the key government agencies administering the program. By helping to to address rural electrification challenges unique to Zambia, this collaboration aims to accelerate the government’s efforts to electrify 1,000 rural communities with distributed renewable energy (DRE) technology, stimulating growth in crucial sectors and reaching one million people over the coming years.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
