The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), which is managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has approved a grant of $760,000 (₹57.61 million) to Empower New Energy As (EmNEW).

This grant will help develop at least eight small renewable energy projects in Africa. The projects will have a capacity ranging between 1-10 MW.

Through its Empower Invest fund, EmNEW invests in small and medium-scale renewable energy projects in Africa with a primary focus on solar power, hybrid, and hydro technologies.

According to the release issued by the bank, the grant will support a broad range of project preparation and development activities, including technical feasibility studies, legal, due diligence, environmental and social impact assessment, quality assurance, and risk management.

Speaking on occasion, Terje Osmundsen, EmNEW’s CEO, said, “There is a large number of small or medium-scale projects across Africa that remain unrealized because they can’t access competitive financing. Our approach allows us to bridge this gap, and working with SEFA, will help us to accelerate this process and support more high-quality projects.”

According to Wale Shonibare, acting vice president for power, energy, climate, and green growth, at the African Development Bank, “Accelerated deployment of distributed solar power and small hydropower is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to bridge the energy access gap, fight climate change and promote sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Recently, it was reported that the African Development Bank approved a grant of $830,000 (~₹62.95 million) to the Guinean Agency for Rural Electrification (AGER) to help it set up green mini-grid projects in the Republic of Guinea.

Mini-grids are renewable energy generation platforms, usually ranging between 10 kW to 10 MW, aimed at serving the needs of communities and settlements that are too isolated to be economically feasible for access to the grid.

To improve energy access in Africa, the AfDB, the European Commission, KfW, the Clean Technology Fund, Norfund, and others recently pledged $160 million (~₹11.84 billion) for the Facility of Energy Inclusion, as previously reported by Mercom. The Facility of Energy Inclusion is a $400 million (~₹29.59 billion) fund that is aimed at improving access to electricity by funding small scale renewable energy projects. Led by the African Development Bank, the fund acts as the financing platform for providing financial support to innovative energy access solutions.

Image credit: JonStrand / CC BY-SA (4.0)