In this episode of the Power for All podcast, William Brent speaks with Jeff Stottlemyer of CLASP’s Clean Energy Access program. COVID-19 has highlighted a silent humanitarian crisis that has persisted for far too long -- the fact that hundreds of millions of people in Africa and Asia are still served by rural health clinics that have no electricity. While efforts to change that are gaining momentum, what’s come to light in the process is that this is much more than just about deploying solar panels and some batteries and ensuring that these systems are operated and maintained in the long term. As important, if not more, is the need for medical devices that are able to work in these clinics once they’re electrified. CLASP’s new report published through the Efficiency for Access Coalition talks about this critical, yet underappreciated challenge.

A Holistic Approach to Powering Rural Healthcare: Interview with Jeff Stottlemyer

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, William Brent speaks with Seth Silverman and Morgan DeFoort of Factor[e] Ventures, a builder of companies working at the intersection of food and energy. This podcast is a series highlighting the critical link between food systems and decentralized renewable energy in support of this year’s UN Food Systems Summit. The goal is to shed light on game-changing ideas in Africa and Asia that can help ensure sustainable energy for all, improve farmers’ lives, and support economic growth. Factor[e] has been one of the earliest investors in this space, exploring the opportunity to scale the food value chain on the back of renewable energy.

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The opportunity at the nexus of food and energy: Interview with Seth Silverman and Morgan DeFoort

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, William Brent speaks with Shilp Verma, a Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and a leading expert on the nexus of food, water, and solar energy. In support of this year’s UN Food Systems Summit, this podcast is part of a special series focused on the critical link between food systems and decentralized renewable energy, aimed at highlighting game-changing ideas in Africa and Asia that can help ensure sustainable energy for all and improve farmers’ lives.

Solar as a Crop: Interview With Shilp Verma

In this episode, William Brent speaks with Magda Moner and Sandor Szabo, leading researchers in rural development and renewable energy at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and co authors of the research paper Mapping of Affordability Levels for Photovoltaic (PV) Based Electricity Generation in the Solar Belt of Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. They shed some light on the impact of their research on affordability of solar PV grids in rural electrification and why it is a more sustainable option.

Affordability of PV based electricity generation on rural electrification

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, William Brent speaks with Karan Sehgal, leading expert on Energy and Food Systems at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).In support of this year’s UN Food Systems Summit, this podcast is part of a special series focused on the critical link between food systems and decentralized renewable energy, aimed at highlighting game-changing ideas in Africa and Asia that can help ensure sustainable energy for all and improve farmers’ lives.

Game-changing solutions to spur ‘agripreneurship’ with renewable energy: Interview with Karan Sehgal

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, Divya Kottadiel speaks with Dhurba Purkayastha, who leads the team at CPI in developing innovative finance and policy solutions in support of the government's renewable energy and green growth plans. He is also the director of US India Clean Energy Finance. The conversation centres around CPI’s recent report on the  future of distributed renewable energy in India, which outlines the benefits and market potential of India's DRE sector, examines the current policy and institutional landscape and provides tailored recommendations for various stakeholders.

The Future of Distributed Renewable Energy in India: Interview with Dhruba Purkayastha

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, William Brent speaks with Kaushik Ramakrishnan, an expert working to transform and scale smallholder farming through innovative financial solutions. In support of this year’s UN Food Systems Summit, this podcast is part of a special series focused on the critical link between food systems and decentralized renewable energy, aimed at highlighting game-changing ideas in Africa and Asia that can help ensure sustainable energy for all and improve farmers’ lives.

How can insurance unlock smallholder farmers’ access to renewable energy?

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, Anand Pathanjali speaks to Mike Bess and Ankit Agarwal from BESA 2 project on behalf of NIRAS LTS. NIRAS-LTS partnered with Aston University, E4tech and AIGUASOL for a two-year research project entitled ‘Bioenergy for Sustainable Local Energy Services and Energy Access in Africa - Phase 2’ (BSEAA2), part of the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) program, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The TEA program aimed to create innovative solutions for scaling up technologies and business models to support energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Bioenergy for Sustainable Local Energy Services and Energy Access in Africa

Energy poverty is rife in Nigeria and many parts of Africa. Pregnant women still give birth to their babies in the dark, critical surgeries are still carried out using candlelight and torchlights. It’s literally a matter of life and death for many poor sick children because there is no capacity to preserve vaccines in a refrigerated environment. In Nigeria, many primary healthcare centers (PHCs) across the geopolitical zones operate in darkness because they depend on the national electricity grid which is largely unreliable and is augmented with petrol or diesel-powered generator sets.

In this podcast, the focus is on the installation of mini-grids in Karu Primary Health Centre in Abuja, Nigeria, by Volsus Energy. It represents the Volsus Solar for Health (VSFH) mini-grid program which is targeting to install 5,000 units of mini-grids across health centers to improve healthcare delivery services in Nigeria.

Guest: Babatomiwa Bayo-Ojo, CEO/Head of Solar Power Plant Design, Off Grid Power Development and Rural Electrification at Volsus Energy Limited, Nigeria. 

Do you enjoy listening to Power for All podcasts? Visit our website (www.powerforall.org) to discover inspiring interviews on renewable electrification as the fastest, most cost-effective, and sustainable approach to universal energy access.

Background reading:
Volsus Solar for Health Initiative led by Babatomiwa Bayo-Ojo to to improve healthcare delivery services in Nigeria

You can find a wealth of sector news analysis and data on our website powerforall.org as well as on our platform for energy access knowledge PEAK (www.powerforall.org/peak/). You can also sign up to receive our fantastic monthly newsletter and if you’d like to support our work, you can donate at powerforall.org/about/donate.

Promoting Healthcare Service Delivery in Nigeria: Interview with Babatomiwa Bayo-Ojo

In this podcast episode, Dr. Ghosh, the founder and CEO of Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and  Power for All CEO, Kristina Skierka continue to dissect our 2022  top trends for energy access.

2022 Top Energy Access Trends: Interview with Dr. Arunabha Ghosh

In this special podcast celebrating inspiring women leaders in renewable energy, we feature Jennye Greene, an expert on energy access. She speaks on her journey into the DRE sector and the importance of gender equity in energy access. Jenny says as the renewable energy sector grows, there has to be deliberate efforts to ensure gender diversity. Conscious choices have to be made to make that happen!

Inspiring Women Leaders in Renewable Energy: Jennye Greene

In the special episode paying homage to women leaders in the sector, our guest is Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO at Odyssey Energy Solutions. She says investors are starting to fund women-led projects in the renewable energy sector. McAteer says this is a good sign that things are changing for the better for women in the male-dominated sector. However, efforts to address biases should be intensified.

Inspiring Women Leaders in Renewable Energy: Emily McAteer

Our guest in this special episode paying homage to women leaders in the sector is Dr Debra Rowe, the President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. Dr Rowe says her career has been dominated by fulfling the need to give people information so that they can move out of energy poverty, and also ensure that they can own their own energy or at the very least, access affordable energy.

Inspiring Women Leaders in Renewable Energy: Dr Debra Rowe

In this special podcast celebrating inspiring women leaders in renewable energy, we feature Lucia Wamala, Founder and CEO of Bakulu Power. She shares her journey into the DRE sector and the importance of gender equity in energy access.

Inspiring Women Leaders in Renewable Energy: Lucia Wamala

In this episode of the Power for All podcast, Kristina Skierka, Founder and CEO of Power for All, speaks with Prof Dan Kammen, a Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group. 

The conversation focuses on how the renewable energy sector has changed over the years and the role of innovations in driving energy access in peri-urban and rural communities, particularly the Pay-As-You-Go (PayGO) model. 

Dan notes solar energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels. He attributes that partly to scaling up and manufacturing but mostly to figuring out how to work a system that, for a long time and maybe even today, is not bending over backward to accommodate clean energy. 
 
“Human connections, thinking about energy access, energy justice, and asking the gender and racial questions of inequality were never on the table as they are now,” he adds. 

He notes there are still problems in a world that still subsidizes fossil fuels more than investing in renewables but we also have a world of disruptive clean, socially just energy options. 

Dan notes PayGo is a democratic system that allows the consumers to see what energy costs and to pay for it, as they wish, in small units. He, however, cautions against opportunists who may take advantage of the system.

PayGo, a Disruptive Tool for Just Energy Transitions: Interview with Prof Dan Kammen

Power for All’s CEO, Kristina Skierka, refers to  Ifeoma Malo (affectionately referred to as Ify) as part of “Power for All OG” and that was one of the main reasons she was perfect for an episode reflecting on the organization’s seventh anniversary. Ify was part of Power for All’s infancy as a country manager based in Nigeria back in 2016. 

She has since gone on to become a game-changer in the renewable energy sector and is now the leader of CleanTech Hub in Nigeria. This is a pioneering hybrid hub for the research, development, demonstration, and incubation of clean and green ideas and technologies in Africa and their validation for commercial-stage development.

Interview with Ifeoma Malo on Power for All’s Seventh Anniversary

Young people form a large part of the global population and that’s why it makes sense for them to be part of the climate change solutions, said John Paul Jose,  a young climate change and social activist. He joined Power for All’s Matuba Mahlatjie for a special edition of Power for All’s podcast to commemorate International Youth Day.

Commemorating International Youth Day with Climate Activist John Paul Jose

In this podcast series commemorating International Youth Day, Jennifer Anya, a renewable energy operations manager at Husk Power Systems,  speaks to Power for All’s Aashna Aggarwal on her journey and experiences as a young woman in the sector and the role of youth in championing the clean energy transition.

Interview with Jennifer Anya, a Young Female Renewable Energy Advocate and Activist

In this  episode, Power for All’s Director of Research, Carolina Pan, speaks to Alessio Terzi who is an Economist at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Alessio is also the author of a book titled, Growth for Good: Reshaping Capitalism to Save Humanity from Climate Catastrophe. 

Alessio tells Carolina that his book was inspired by the fact that we are living at a  time where climate change is becoming more and more prominent and addressing it is becoming more of a priority. He added that the tipping point that called for the book was the global pandemic that rocked the world in 2020.

Reshaping Capitalism to Save Humanity from Climate Catastrophe: Interview with Alessio Terzi

In this podcast interview, Florence Nsubuga, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Umeme Limited talks about Utilities 2.0 project. Led by Power for All, it unites centralized utilities and the decentralized renewable energy sector to end energy poverty faster.

In Conversation with Florence Nsubuga, Chief Operating Office at Uganda’s Power Utility, Umeme

In this last podcast for 2022, we reflect on the COP27 outcomes with Solar Sister Chief Operating Officer Olasimbo Sojinrin. Simbo said she went to Egypt with enthusiasm that the climate conference would be Africa-focused as it was dubbed Africa’s COP. While she commended the work to organize the event, she said important work happened in silos and did not go in the direction she hoped. 

Simbo also reflects on the responsibility developing nations have to address energy poverty and save vulnerable communities from climate disasters plaguing parts of the world. The consolation prize that Simbo said was worth noting and celebrating was the reached agreement on a funding mechanism to compensate vulnerable nations for ‘loss and damage’ from climate-induced disasters. She said activists fought for this breakthrough for over 30 years.

“Though no numbers or targets or set we take as a win,” she said. 

She said Solar Sister went to the conference with a keen interest to see how gender equity, climate justice, and energy access are tackled. Listen to the podcast to hear Simbo thinks these were handled.

Post-COP27 reflections with Olasimbo Sojinrin, COO at Solar Sister.

In our first podcast for 2023, Lungile Mashele, an Energy Economist who works for the largest asset manager in Africa, Public Investment Corporation, where she oversees energy projects, and provides technical appraisals on energy projects all over the continent, shared her thoughts on what is likely to trend in the energy sector in 2023. 

She says anticipates solar PV will be popular globally and say that's because the price has become more favorable as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia continues. 

“There will be a concerted effort on energy security, especially by European nations, and they will be scrambling to make sure that they get sufficient energy to take them through their next winter as well,” said Lungile.

She adds that there is no political will to alleviate the heavy load that is the high energy prices which 60% of the African population can’t afford. Lungile says people who can’t access energy are also denied economic opportunities and she called on politicians to prioritize people’s needs. 

Africa’s most industrialized economy, South Africa, is struggling to keep lights on and the electricity prices have recently skyrocketed. The country was a case study for this podcast with Lungile saying the problems South Africa faces have a lot to do with internal politics, operational challenges, and lack of investment. Listen to the podcast for full details.

South African energy economist predicts tough year ahead

SureChill's cutting-edge refrigeration technology, developed by engineer Ian Tansley with 35+ years of renewable energy expertise, has revolutionized cooling systems by utilizing ice and water to maintain stable temperatures for extended periods. This game-changing solution is particularly advantageous for vaccine storage, even in regions with limited electricity access. With over 25,000 fridges sold in 70 countries, SureChill's patented technology has already facilitated the safe delivery of 71 million vaccine doses.

SureChill's success can be attributed to their unwavering commitment to meeting user and community needs. By providing affordable and reliable refrigeration, SureChill empowers farmers to extend the shelf life of perishable goods, boosting their income. Additionally, it enables medical professionals to safely store vaccines and medications. Expanding their product line, SureChill is introducing larger units for agriculture and retail cooling, as well as mains power devices for areas with weak grid connections or individuals seeking greater control over their electricity usage. 

To gain further insights, tune in to the podcast.

A Cooling Breakthrough: A Conversation with Ian Tansley, Founder of SureChill

How can we make farming more productive and sustainable with renewable energy technologies? That’s the question we explore in our latest episode of the PowerforAll podcast, where we talk to Michael Maina of CLASP. PUE technologies in agriculture comprise a suite of technologies that include solar water pumps, walk-in cold rooms, refrigerators, and egg incubators. 

These technologies have huge potential in improving the income of smallholder farmers while simultaneously reducing agriculture sector emissions. But farmers face many barriers to adoption such as high cost and limited awareness about these products. 

Michael Maina emphasized that the problem requires a holistic solution that goes beyond increasing the adoption of PUE technologies. He said that we also need to address the agricultural issues that affect farmers, such as ensuring farmers are paid fair prices for their produce and that they have timely access to inputs. To achieve this, Michael recommends a cross-departmental coordination mechanism between energy and agriculture sector stakeholders.

Michael Maina expressed his optimism that renewable energy technologies will power the agriculture sector in the future. He pointed out the growing investments from various actors, such as development partners, the government, and the private sector, as a sign of the promising potential of these technologies. Listen to the podcast to learn more.

Powering Agriculture with Renewable Energy: A Conversation with Michael Maina of CLASP

A win-win for improved energy access
Is access to mini-grids for productive use translating to improved lives for end users? What does this journey look like for customers who gain access to energy?

Two thousand mini-grid customers are advancing up the energy ladder toward clean energy, improving their quality of life and enabling income-generating activities for about a quarter of these users, often through small businesses. In an interview, Kat Harrison from 60 Decibels discusses their 2024 report, “Why Off-Grid Matters,” which offers a detailed analysis of the data on ownership of modern off-grid energy products and their impact on access, behaviors, and social dynamics.

60 Decibels, a global tech-enabled social impact measurement firm, offers speedy, repeatable insights and benchmarks for comparing organizational performance. Listen to the Podcast for further insights.

A win-win for improved energy access: A Conversation with Kat Harrison of 60 Decibels

How can women in India and Nepal be empowered as micro-entrepreneurs to combat poverty, promote gender equality, and increase access to renewable energy?

In this episode, we speak with Sujatha Ramani from Pollinate Group. We discuss how this non-profit organization empowers female entrepreneurs, known as "Suryamukhi," by providing financing for life-changing products, including affordable clean energy technology. This initiative aims to improve the lives of underprivileged individuals living in slums and villages in India and Nepal.

Pollinate Group's impact model addresses the global energy crisis by providing access to essential clean energy products while creating female micro-entrepreneurs to help tackle poverty. To date, this program has empowered more than 2,200 women and positively impacted over 802,000 people in their communities.



Female Microentrepreneurs Fighting Poverty with Clean Energy Through Pollinate Group

From Farm to Market: Reflections on Powering Agriculture with Ashenafi Mulugeta

The winners of the 2020 Ashden Awards will be celebrated virtually on 2 July. Harriet Lamb, Ashden CEO, talks to Power for All about the macro-trends that Ashden has seen over time in energy access innovation.

Scaling Low Carbon Innovation - Interview with Harriet Lamb

In this episode, Gillian-Alexandre Huart, the first CEO of ENGIE Energy Access, a new energy unit launched by ENGIE, speaks about creating an integrated business model that can bring together solar home systems, minigrids and national distribution. ENGIE, one of the world's largest energy companies, has been a leader in pushing for rural electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, through its acquisitions of household solar companies Fenix, Mobisol and Simpa Networks, and its own minigrid provider, Powercorner. It has ambitious goals to impact 20 million people, but also to achieve scale and profitability.

Integrating energy systems and business models to impact 20 million lives - Gillian-Alexandre Huart

With storytelling that stretches across his time living in Guinea-Bissau with the Peace Corps to founding one of the most influential advocacy organizations in the U.S., this podcast featuring Adam Browning of Vote Solar is a great way to wind-up 2020. Adam delivers expert insights into the role of activism in policy change and the importance of staying open to opportunities that bring your values to life. Listen now to learn why 2021 will be the best year yet for the global renewable energy sector.

The Optimistic Activist: Why 2021 Will be the Year that Solar Wins - Interview with Adam Browning

Across the world, renewable energy is creating a distributed, digitized revolution in the way communities produce and consume power. Join Power for All as we talk to the people working on the front lines of bringing electricity to nearly 1 billion mostly rural poor by 2030, the UN deadline for achieving universal energy access. Designed to stimulate discussion through in-depth interviews, informed analysis and powerful stories, the podcast highlights the trends, latest innovations, research, news, events, policies and impacts of distributed energy systems in the Global South, especially sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. 

Power for All is a coalition of 300+ organizations campaigning to ensure that everyone on the planet has reliable, affordable and modern electricity before 2030. Visit powerforall.org for more.

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