RENEW workshop Kigali - presentation materials uploaded

In June, RENEW hosted an energy access practitioner workshop in collaboration with the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands in Kigali. The workshop was attended by over 40 solar and biomass professionals in Rwanda, including entrepreneurs, academics, policymakers, and investors.

Find links to all presentation materials and a workshop summary on our Events page.

Researchers for a low carbon Rwanda

RENEW is not the only international research initiative looking into issues of energy access and low carbon development in Rwanda. We have came across a few related projects from around the world - have a look!

Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering - Pico-hydro in Rwanda

Imperial College London - e.quinox energy kiosks

MIT's D-Lab - various projects

University of Oxford - Rwandan National Strategy on Climate Change and Low Carbon Development

Recent practitioner publications in energy access

Climate Focus and the African Development Bank present an overview and guidelines for developing PoAs in Africa: Handbook for Programmes of Activities in Africa

The World Bank compiles research and new thinking for improved cookstoves: Household cookstoves, environment, health, and climate change

Alliance Magazine looks at rural electrification in Bihar, including profiles of Husk Power Systems and Greenlight Planet: June 2011 - Electrifying Bihar: the role of philanthropy and social investment

The Netherlands and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Last week SNV and the Shell Foundation convened a round table discussion of Dutch rural energy practitioners in Den Haag to discuss the recently formed Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an overview of activities currently being driven by NL parties in clean cooking, and explore the potential for future collaboration.

The discussion focused heavily on programmatic carbon finance, though other topics including the need to stimulate market demand,  and further understand the entire cooking energy value chain (including forestry management and feedstocks) were also highlighted. We saw quite a bit of overlap between the research directions in RENEW, and contributed insights gained from fieldwork in Rwanda, Kenya, and Indonesia. 

Inclusive Business Model Generator publication launched

The "Inclusive Business Model Generator" publication, a practitioner oriented tool developed by Berlin based think tank Endeva, launched last month at the 14th International Business Forum in Berlin.

View the project website and download the publication here.

NURU Light and RENEW in Toronto's Financial Post

Last month Rahul Barua spoke from Kigali to Toronto's Financial Post on renewable energy entrepreneurship in Rwanda, and a groundbreaking BoP venture called NURU Light. NURU delivers a micro-franchising model to address the challenge of off-grid lighting in low income markets. Village-level entrepreneurs are provided "PowerCycles" to charge LED lights; the lights are rented to village residents on a daily basis, and mimic the payments required for micro-purchases of kerosene.

Read the FP article here, and learn more about NURU's innovative approach below.

Energy access and RENEW

Energy poverty remains a critical challenge for poverty alleviation and sustainable development worldwide. Over 1.4 billion people around the world lack access to electricity today, and up to 2.7 billion people rely on the traditional use of biomass for cooking. The consequences of energy poverty are many, with significant implications for health, environment, and economic advancement. 

Renewable energy technologies (RETs) and energy efficient appliances are often suggested as promising solutions for the alleviation of energy poverty. Despite this, the potential of these technologies to provide access to basic energy services remains under-exploited. The RENEW IS-Academy is a five year, collaborative research project investigating renewable energy, energy poverty, and implications for development cooperation.