SF partner and Kenyan start-up ASOBO officially launched last week, offering replacement electric engines – or e-boarders – for fishing boats, which are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional petrol engines. Thousands of fishing boats – at present powered by expensive and polluting petrol engines – use Kenya’s Lake Victoria every day. ASOBO plans…
A new group of 36 funders active in the field of household solar in Africa, have come together to identify key priority areas to amplify sector impact. The Household Solar Funders Group (HSFG) builds upon the Scaling Off Grid Energy (SOGE) initiative founded by USAID, FCDO, the African Development Bank and Shell Foundation in 2018…
Mini-grids are essential to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which aims to provide universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030. In order to achieve this goal, 238 million households will need to gain access to electricity. It is estimated that mini-grids can serve nearly half of these…
WASHINGTON – The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Shell Foundation (the UK-registered charity) yesterday announced a new collaboration to bring affordable renewable energy to more than 5 million people in low-income areas of Africa and Asia by 2025. The organizations recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding that enhances their ability to support the…
Shell Foundation is supporting a transformative new platform to create a global market for distributed renewable energy. The D-REC Initiative is led by South Pole and Positive.Capital Partners and is supported by Shell Foundation (with co-funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), Good Energies Foundation, EnAccess Foundation and Signify Foundation. With over $500…
With the support of Shell Foundation and the UK Government’s FCDO Agricultural Research arm through the CASEE programme, Factor[e] Ventures has been building a world-leading portfolio of impact ventures at the ag-energy nexus while simultaneously developing key insights to move innovation at this intersection forward. In 2019-20, Factor[e] developed a programme of demonstration projects with…
How can the direct impacts of biogas support the achievement of the SDGs? How does this impact vary between different market segments? A new report – commissioned by Shell Foundation with co-funding from the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office – analyses the contribution of biogas towards SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy)…
VentureBuilder has produced two learning papers outlining how they have continued to build an investment pipeline of locally owned and managed African off-grid operators, by refining its sourcing model and build operator resilience by adapting its business support offerings. Shell Foundation has supported VentureBuilder (VB) since 2019 with co-funding from USAID and…
A new consumer study from Nayo Tropical Technology Limited (NTT) shows the material impact of solar mini-grids in Nigeria on livelihoods, income and education. NTT currently owns and operates four solar mini-grids, and is expanding its portfolio with 14 new mini-grids under construction. Shell Foundation has supported NTT since 2019 with co-funding from UKAID, USAID…
As the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic continues to unfold, rural households are among those most impacted. This learning brief — commissioned by SF with co-funding from the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office and the Mastercard Foundation Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab (RAFLL) — examines actual impacts of Covid-19 on rural households in…