Energy Poverty Impacts Three Billion People. Time to Think Big.
get our Latest Insights
All Nations Need a High-Energy Future to Power Industrial and Commercial Development, Job Creation and Economic Growth.
But Small-Scale Solutions to Energy Poverty Can’t Build Competitive Economies. So the Hopes and Security of Billions are at Risk.
The Energy for Growth Hub Connects the Latest Research Directly with Policymaker Demand — To Fuel Prosperity for Everyone.
Featured Content
Op EdGlobal Energy Inequality Goes Deeper Than BitcoinModern life is amazingly energy intensive. All those computers, data servers, and air conditioners devour a lot of electricity. In fact, virtually everything about how we live, move around, communicate, and work is embedded with immense quantities of energy. It’s now even in our money.Learn More
MemoWaste-to-Energy: one solution for two problems?Incinerating organic waste is the most common method of producing energy from municipal solid waste. While this approach is significantly more costly than landfills, waste-to-energy (WTE) can make economic sense in areas where there are energy deficits and/or a shortage of landfill space.Learn More
MemoFour Meta-Challenges to Power Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan MarketsSub-Saharan African countries urgently need more electricity services to foster economic growth and job creation. While plugging the energy gap is not sufficient to address all the region’s economic woes, it is a fundamental building block to the wider aspirations of these societies.Learn More
MemoCompetitive Auctions and Ultra-Low Solar BidsThe global record low tariff for a utility-scale solar PV project has been broken seven times since 2016, all within auction environments, with recent leading bids dipping below US $0.02/kWh, and average prices pushing past the cost-competitive range with coal and gas.Learn More
Recent Posts
MemoBig Solar Bankability & Utility Performance Can Benefit from Power Pools
High power generation costs in Sub-Saharan Africa are driven by stark imbalances in supply and demand, poor utility performance, and constraints on independent power producers.Continue Reading- Op Ed
Global Energy Inequality Goes Deeper Than Bitcoin
Modern life is amazingly energy intensive. All those computers, data servers, and air conditioners devour a lot of electricity. In fact, virtually everything about how we live, move around, communicate, and work is embedded with immense quantities of energy. It’s now even in our money.Continue Reading 
MemoFor wind and solar, big is (usually) better
Dramatic cost reductions in wind and especially solar power seem to promise a distributed energy future. Grid-connected rooftop solar lets any home or industrial facility become a “prosumer” that produces electricity as well as consuming it.Continue Reading
MemoPower Africa’s Top Obstacles in Each Market
Power Africa is a multi-agency US government initiative that aims to increase generation capacity and expand access to energy in Africa. The USAID-coordinated program aligns its support and activities by tackling the most pressing obstacles to power projects and private investment in each market.Continue Reading
MemoThe Eskom Crisis: What are we dealing with?
Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power company, is in an existential crisis. Problems at Eskom have regional reverberations because it is the continent’s largest utility and trades power with seven countries. More than a decade of mismanagement, governance failure, spiralling costs, and the accumulation of unmanageable debt has put Eskom into a death spiral.Continue Reading
MemoCosts of unreliable electricity to African firms
The availability and reliability of electricity services is crucial for economic development because of electricity’s role as a powerful engine of social and economic change.Continue Reading
Op EdAfrica’s Cities Are About to Boom – and Maybe Explode
Africa is rural. Or that’s what senior Western officials envision when they talk about the continent. America’s top diplomat for the region, Tibor Nagy, recently said that Africa is “by and large an agricultural society.” He isn’t alone: Germany’s recent Marshall Plan with Africa insists that “rural areas will determine Africa’s future.” This is wrong.Continue Reading
BlogBitcoin, gaming and the chasm of global energy inequality
Will Bitcoin cook the planet? A great Axios piece “No, Bitcoin won't destroy our climate by 2033” argues that carbon emissions from the substantial energy consumption of bitcoin mining isn’t likely to significantly contribute to global warming.Continue Reading- Memo
Waste-to-Energy: one solution for two problems?
Incinerating organic waste is the most common method of producing energy from municipal solid waste. While this approach is significantly more costly than landfills, waste-to-energy (WTE) can make economic sense in areas where there are energy deficits and/or a shortage of landfill space.Continue Reading - Memo
Four Meta-Challenges to Power Sector Reform in Sub-Saharan Markets
Sub-Saharan African countries urgently need more electricity services to foster economic growth and job creation. While plugging the energy gap is not sufficient to address all the region’s economic woes, it is a fundamental building block to the wider aspirations of these societies.Continue Reading