Collaborative effort to tackle off grid energy needs
Partners for Euro-African Green Energy (PANGEA) and the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) today announced a partnership under the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4ALL) to support the development of biomass-based decentralised renewable energy systems and the off-grid renewable energy market.
This partnership, developed under the auspices of SE4ALL and supported by a Memorandum of Understanding, is created to establish a mutually beneficial collaboration focused upon decentralised renewable energy solutions using biomass applied in developing and emerging countries. It will support the on-going role of PANGEA, as Secretariat for the African HII for the High Impact Opportunity on Sustainable Bioenergy, and of ARE, as Secretariat for the High Impact Opportunity on Clean Energy Mini-Grids"”to achieve greater energy access.
For the past six years PANGEA has been working on behalf of the African bioenergy industry, whilst ARE has been working to unite all relevant actors along the whole value chain for off-grid technologies. In joining forces, the two organisations will work together to create and disseminate knowledge and experiences on decentralised renewable energy-based solutions and utilise synergies to optimise results in improving clean energy access and services in rural areas of developing and emerging countries with a focus on bioenergy.
Key to the partnership will be attracting and implementing projects that provide biomass-based off-grid power for lighting, cooking and productive use such as agricultural processing and manufacturing. By integrating biomass-based technologies into ARE's already extensive work, the partnership will serve as a focal point for those looking to add value to existing and future biomass supply chains. The work will be supported by PANGEA's existing agreement with Embark Energy and Everest Energy working to train energy entrepreneurs in Africa and seeking funding"”from seed funds through scale-up"”to deploy off-grid biomass-based solutions.
The partnership aims to ensure sound, stable and long-term policies and regulation for increased private investment and to stimulate the development of the off-grid renewable energy market. In the coming months, PANGEA and ARE will collaborate to jointly implement a biomass-focused campaign to be launched during the first half of 2015 starting with the establishment of a taskforce in October 2014, and will explore the possibility of developing and implementing an SE4ALL Rural Electrification roadmap as part of the programming for the African HII.
"We have long seen a place for biomass-based power in the off-grid sector, so we're very excited to sign this agreement with ARE"”global leaders in the off-grid power space"”to attract more attention to these opportunities to add value to biomass, scale up these opportunities and ensure increased access to energy for those in areas not serviced by traditional grid infrastructure," said Meghan Sapp, Secretary General of PANGEA.
"This new cooperation with PANGEA comes as a timely and important step in ARE's strategy to launch a biomass campaign in the first half of 2015. In the strong belief that biomass will play an increasing role to cross-link the agricultural sector with consumptive and productive use of electricity, we are confident that with PANGEA's expertise on sustainable bioenergy in Africa, our partnership will spur the right synergies to generate a successful campaign to support the development of biomass-based decentralised renewable energy systems and the off-grid renewable energy market," said Marcus Wiemann, Secretary General of ARE.
