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Featured Content
- MultimediaEpisode #8 Damilola Ogunbiyi: Putting People at the Center of Energy TransitionsThe CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) on whether the international community is failing on SDG7, what she thinks net zero means for Africa & how she challenges the stereotype of what an African leader looks like. Damilola Ogunbiyi is the CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy.Learn More
- ReportRaising Global Energy Ambitions: The 1,000 kWh Modern Energy MinimumEnergy is fundamental to modern living and any competitive prosperous economy. SDG7 calls for modern energy for all, but the indicator for tracking progress against this goal is meeting a very low level of residential electricity consumption.Learn More
- ReportGoing Big on Power Africa: Fortifying the Initiative for Today's Urgent Challenges10 Recommendations to enhance Power Africa’s impact on energy poverty, economic development, and climate change The US Government’s Power Africa initiative grew out of a bipartisan commitment to addressing energy poverty.Learn More
- MemoPolicy Action for Climate Resilient Energy Systems in Small IslandsThe Imperative for Small Island Energy Resilience With over 30 storms named, 2020’s Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record and the tenth consecutive year with eight or more billion-dollar disasters.1 The 2021 hurricane season is already underway, projected to extend the record to six consecutive seasons with above-normal storm activity.2 FIGURE 1: Natural disaster impacts to the Caribbean It is estimated that Caribbean countries suffer annual storm damages equivalent to 17% of GDP on average, with damages often well exceeding the size of the economy – Hurricane Maria is estimated to have cost Dominica 225% of its GDP in 2017.3 Natural disasters occur more frequently and cost more on average in the Caribbean than anywhere else (see Fig 1),4 and are compounded by economic reliance on climate-sensitive industries including agriculture, fisheries, and tourism. As such, the Caribbean consistently ranks as one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change and is prioritizing adaptation measures and infrastructure that may reduce the costs of climate-related disasters and build resilience to future shocks.Learn More
Recent Posts
- Memo
Lessons for Renewables Development from Vietnam
In 2020, when the world was scrambling with the covid-19 pandemic, 10 countries in Southeast Asia region added cumulatively ~22 GW new installed power capacity, about 82% of this new capacity in 2020 was renewable – a notable new trend. While the installed fossil fuel capacity and renewables capacity were comparable in the last five years, the countries in this region are now turning more towards renewable.Continue Reading - Blog
The Russian invasion is an opening for US nuclear technology
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted energy supply chains and raised financing costs across the world, creating major headwinds for both fossil fuels and renewables.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Kanika Chawla: Preview of the SEforALL Forum
After multiple postponements, the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Forum will finally take place starting May 17 in Kigali, to share ideas to accelerate ending energy poverty, advance clean & just energy transitions, and raise the bar on energy access. To help set the stage, this Coffee Break Briefing features Kanika Chawla, UN-Energy Programme Manager at SEforALL.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Air-Conditioning Should Be a Human Right in the Climate Crisis
Originally posted in Scientific American, May 10, 2022. We need to protect vulnerable people from killer heat without destroying the environment A record-breaking heat wave is sweeping South Asia, threatening hundreds of millions of people with deadly temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #14 Ashvin Dayal: We Need to Redefine Energy & Development Progress
Dayal, Senior Vice President of Power & Climate and The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet at The Rockefeller Foundation, discusses how he got into working on energy, why he believes in raising the definition of energy access, and the power of philanthropy. Ashvin Dayal leads The Rockefeller Foundation’s Power & Climate program, aimed at scaling up energy access and accelerating an inclusive energy transition in emerging markets.Continue Reading - Memo
How Can Electric Transportation Advance Africa’s Sustainable Development Agenda?
The global push to decarbonize, coupled with rapidly growing markets for electric vehicles (EVs) in industrialized nations, is raising the question: what’s needed to shape and invest in Africa’s EV future? A just transition to low-carbon transportation will necessitate the creation of policies and solutions that support socio-economic development, sustainability, and affordability.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Where are Africa’s Clean Energy Projects? A proactive agenda for the US Government
BLUF: The USG wants to fund as many new clean energy projects in Africa as possible, but the pool of bankable utility-scale generation projects is running dry.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Katie Auth at ORF panel on Security & Access: US Cooperation with the Developing World
How does the Ukraine Crisis, the pandemic, and the challenge of climate change affect emerging markets' demand for energy and need for energy security? Katie Auth joined an ORF panel to discuss with Andrew Light (Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, U.S.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Todd Moss speaks at the G20: "Achieving Global Energy Access Goals in the Decade of Action"
Todd Moss gives a presentation on the Modern Energy Minimum at the G20 Webinar Series "Achieving Global Energy Access Goals in the Decade of Action" on April 27, 2022. Watch his presentation on YouTube, or see it below: https://youtu.be/uZPPw1Kau8o?t=2804Continue Reading - Multimedia
Rose Mutiso on Inside the Energy Transition Podcast
Is the energy transition only truly happening in the West? Politicians like to point fingers at those who ‘aren’t doing their bit’.Continue Reading - Memo
Long-tailed distributions and electrification planning: why we need to model the ‘long tail’ of large consumers
What do earthquake magnitudes, viral YouTube videos, and consumer-level electricity demand have in common? If you guessed: “they all exhibit long-tailed distributions,” you’re correct! ‘Long-tailed’ distributions refer to those in which a small number of occurrences take extreme values, far from the central part of the distribution.Continue Reading - Blog
Gas prices high, but renewables also at risk from rising interest rates
Soaring oil & gas prices, sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, should be good news for wind & solar energy since they become more price competitive.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Will Impact Africa’s Energy Transition
Originally appeared in the Council on Foreign Relations, April 22, 2022. Russia’s assault on Ukraine has roiled global energy markets and turned the climate policy conversation upside down.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #13 Moussa Blimpo: Energy is Not the Answer to Everything
Blimpo, Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto's Munk’s School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, discusses his experiences turning policy into real-world impact, his evolving views on dominant development narratives, and what climate justice means to him. Moussa is a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, a Fellow at the Energy for Growth Hub, and Senior Fellow with the Clean Air Task Force.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Electric transport offers Kenya a way out of its fuel crises
Originally posted in Business Daily, April 19, 2022 Over the past two weeks, Kenyans have been forced to grapple with the pain and uncertainty of fuel shortage.Continue Reading - Memo
Business models to unlock private investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity transmission sector
Expansive electricity transmission networks reduce overall costs in the power sector by enabling economies of scale in generation, expanding access to cost-efficient energy resources, reducing the necessary reserve margin, and supporting grid integration of renewable assets.Continue Reading - Memo
Why it’s time for private investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity transmission sector
In energy markets, generation assets get all the attention, and the transmission of that electricity to productive loads that will consume it is unsexy and often overlooked — but is a critical bottleneck to Africa’s high-energy future. Interconnected grids can unlock a clean energy future Physical and regulatory interconnectedness is one of the keys to improving the fiscal and operational performance of power systems.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #12 Uzodinma Iweala: Climate Justice Demands New African Narratives
Iweala, CEO of The Africa Center, discusses the experiences and identities that led him to narrative work, how narratives are formed and how we can shape them in the development and climate justice realm, and what his definition of climate justice means for Africa. Uzodinma Iweala is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and medical doctor.Continue Reading - Memo
Three Recommendations for Meaningful Africa-Europe Partnership on Energy Transitions
Ambitious, time-bound commitments to delivering finance for clean energy in Africa will be far more productive than policing policies that dictate what countries can do with their own sovereign resources. Spotlighting the global importance of Africa’s energy transitions Africa’s role in the global energy transition is undeniable as the least electrified yet fastest-growing continent on the globe, crucially in need of investment in climate resilience.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #11 Jay Taneja: Using Machine Learning to Inform Energy Access Solutions
Taneja, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, discusses his work on creatively accessing data in data-poor environments, the challenges in electrification via grid connections, and his work as an engineer and professor in the development sector. Jay Taneja is a Hub Fellow and an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he directs the Systems Towards Infrastructure Measurement and Analytics (STIMA) Lab.Continue Reading - Memo
What will drive South Africa’s Energy Transition? 3 Factors to Watch
South Africa’s energy sector is entering the throes of transition – and the world is watching. While the announcement of the $8.5 bn Just Energy Transition Partnership at COP26 has perhaps received the most attention, local factors will ultimately drive the broader transition and determine its success or failure.1 The ongoing Eskom crisis is certainly one key area to watch, but here are three other recent developments that will likely prove equally important in determining the direction and speed of change: 1.Continue Reading - Memo
Accelerating Electric Mobility in Nigeria
Millions of people around the world already drive electric vehicles (EVs), and sales will likely keep booming. In the first half of 2021, EVs captured 7.2% of the global market share of all new vehicles, nearly triple what it was in 2019.1 The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that the stock of EVs will hit 145 million by 2030 – about 7% of all new and used registered vehicles in that year.2 Nigeria is building momentum for EVs too.Continue Reading - Blog
The Renewables-Only Fantasy for Africa: A reply to Bassey & Lemos’ reply to Osinbajo
How can international donors better support Africa’s transition to a prosperous low-carbon energy future? And when should donors consider supporting highly-developmental fossil fuel projects? In response to these questions, Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recently argued in Foreign Affairs that development finance should remain open to natural gas where projects would advance Africa’s own development.Continue Reading - Memo
What will a coal phasedown mean for India?
Even a ‘phasedown’, which implies consolidation or reduction in the rate of coal consumption, will transform the country’s labor market and political economy At COP26, many observers criticized India for driving a supposed ‘last minute’ change to the agreement text from ‘phasing out’ to ‘phasing down’ unabated coal power.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #10 Katie Hill: The First Pillar of Decarbonization Needs to be Green Growth
Hill, Partner & Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group, talks about the future for African cities, the imperative for green growth in low-income countries on the global path to net zero, and her outlook on scaling enterprise and service delivery in Africa. Katie Hill is an expert Partner and Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group, based in Nairobi, Kenya.Continue Reading - Memo
Could micro-nuclear reactors power microgrids in emerging markets?
Source: An artist rendering of the 1.5MW Oklo Aurora powerhouse (Image: Gensler) Microgrids are increasingly deployed to expand energy access in energy-poor countries, and even in remote areas of high-income countries.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Fixing the Disconnect Around Energy Access
The divergent fates of two community mini-grids in Nigeria illustrate why energy systems should be built to enable economic transformation. Originally published in Issues in Science and Technology, March 2022. Over the past two decades, the United Nations, the World Bank, regional development banks, and national governments have led efforts to give more people access to electricity.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with June Lukuyu: Guiding an EV Future in Africa
Electric mobility will be key to powering prosperous livelihoods and decarbonizing systems worldwide. As African countries integrate diverse productive uses of electrification, they are embarking on their own electric vehicle (EV) revolutions— and implementing the right strategies to catalyze EV adoption will help transition to a high-energy, low-carbon future. June Lukuyu of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst STIMA Lab discusses her research on the technology and policy issues central to the future of EVs in Africa, with Rose Mutiso moderating.Continue Reading - Memo
What can we learn from the DFC’s 2021 energy project approvals?
The US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) works to spur private investment in support of foreign policy and development goals. The DFC opened its doors in January 2020, built on the foundations of the former Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and USAID’s Development Credit Authority.Continue Reading - Memo
Should lower-income countries build open cycle or combined cycle gas turbines?
Over the last two decades, the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) has become the dominant technology for gas-fired power due to its high efficiency, low operating costs, and low emissions.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #9 Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee: Decarbonization is a Very Long Game
Banerjee, practice manager in the Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank Group, talks with Katie and Rose about whether net zero makes sense for Africa, what development organizations get wrong about energy access & women, and why hydrogen could be the next solar. Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee is a Practice Manager in the Africa region in Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank.Continue Reading - Memo
Where should the DFC look for future nuclear deals?
The US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) lifted its ban on supporting nuclear power projects abroad in July 2020. Advanced nuclear power is often viewed as “too far away” for development finance institutions to consider, but in just 18 months the DFC has publicly signaled support for two bids by US firms: South Africa will open a RFP for a 2500MW nuclear expansion in March 2022.Continue Reading - Memo
Geothermal could break the economic growth-climate feedback loop in Indonesia
Indonesia’s potential for geothermal energy production is one of (if not the) highest in the world. The government plans to increase the total installed capacity of geothermal power plants to 9,300 megawatts (MW) by 2035.1 This is very ambitious: Indonesia currently has just 2,443 MW of installed geothermal capacity, second only to the US (3,700 MW).2 This expansion would likely make the country the global leader in geothermal power. Game-changing energy Geothermal energy could be a game-changer for Indonesia because it helps fulfill several of the government’s goals: Extending universal electricity access.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Kenya Power should rethink strategy on electric vehicles
Originally appeared in The Standard, February 14, 2022. Last month, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) announced plans to roll out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, with the goal of unleashing new revenue streams and diversifying their business. No details have been provided about how exactly they plan to fund and execute this ambitious project, and the proposal has been met with general enthusiasm.Continue Reading - Memo
Imagining the ‘Google’ of electrification: how digital twins and computational systems for continuous planning can reinvent century-old practices
Some of today’s largest companies – Google, Facebook, and Amazon – disrupted their respective markets and earned trillion-dollar company valuations by using computational systems to provide information, collect data, and continuously optimize their processes.Continue Reading - Report
2022 Advanced Nuclear Map: Charting a Breakout Year
Since 2015, Third Way has been tracking the evolution and growth of advanced nuclear innovation projects in the US and Canada.Continue Reading - Memo
Energy-poor countries face a special challenge: vertical energy transitions
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to all seven countries with electrification rates lower than 20%: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Niger, and South Sudan.1 Many others have basic electrification but fall far short of the Modern Energy Minimum needed to power job-creating enterprises.2 Concerns about climate change and rapidly declining costs of renewable energy sources like solar and wind have led to calls for low-income countries to “leapfrog” fossil fuels in their energy development pathways.3 What is a vertical energy transition? The shift to renewable energy in countries facing rapidly growing electricity demand but starting from a low base threshold of energy infrastructure represents a “vertical transition” (Figure 1).Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #8 Damilola Ogunbiyi: Putting People at the Center of Energy Transitions
The CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) on whether the international community is failing on SDG7, what she thinks net zero means for Africa & how she challenges the stereotype of what an African leader looks like. Damilola Ogunbiyi is the CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy.Continue Reading - Memo
Natural Gas in the ASEAN Energy Landscape
Natural gas will continue to play a key role in meeting the future energy requirements of power and industrial sectors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, with Liquefied natural gas (LNG) serving as a bridge fuel to promote higher penetrations of renewable energy and mitigate the risk of over-reliance on coal.1 However, some obstacles to effective use of gas remain: Over-subsidization.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Brad Handler: Financing tools to help take coal offline
At COP26, over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal completely by 2030-2040, but achieving these goals won’t be easy, or cheap.Continue Reading - Memo
Grid investment and gas-fired power at the heart of Nigeria’s economic transformation and energy transition
By 2050, Nigeria will become the world’s third most populous country. Its population will roughly double to 400 million people – 75% of whom will live in cities.Continue Reading - Memo
Five ways the African Continental Free Trade Agreement can de-risk the continent’s power sector
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is a regional pact among 54 of the 55 African Union nations that establishes a single market and reduces trade frictions for the movement of goods, services, capital, and people within the continent. Context: The reported share of intra-African trade has historically been low, averaging 13% for intra-imports and 20% for intra-exports over the last seven years, though the reality is likely much higher due to informal trade and skewed totals reflecting activity in a few export-oriented heavyweights like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Angola. What does the new agreement do? Since its launch in January 2021, the AfCFTA has created the largest free trade area in the world by number of ratifying countries, connecting 1.3 billion people from participating economies with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Todd Moss on the 17 Rooms Podcast: “New targets and metrics for energy reliability, productivity, and quality"
In this thirteenth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Todd Moss discusses new “measurable metrics” to reframe SDG7 energy targets to be more ambitious and location-specific with Clare Boland Ross and John McArthur. Listen to the full episode below, or here (with a full transcript available for download):Continue Reading - Memo
A power and economic dual crisis: Lebanon’s electricity sector
The electricity sector in Lebanon is notoriously dysfunctional, suffering from supply shortages for decades. Peak demand is 1.5 gigawatts (GW) or 219.78 megawatts (MW) per million inhabitants, higher than generation capacity.1 In comparison, the power deficit in India, where over 1 billion people live, was 1.2 GW in 2019/2020, or 0.9 MW per million inhabitants.2 What’s causing Lebanon’s power and economic crises? High (and inequitable) direct costs.Continue Reading - Memo
12 Priority Markets for Advanced Nuclear Technology
Nuclear power is a potential source of clean power to drive industrialization and to meet rising demand in emerging markets, especially with new smaller, safer, and more flexible designs expected to come to the market over the next decade.Continue Reading - Blog
What Will ‘Net Zero’ Mean for Africa? We aim to find out.
‘Net zero’ has emerged as one of the biggest new buzzwords in global climate and energy policy. Multiple analyses have laid out potential net zero pathways for the world’s energy systems, and high-profile pledges to achieve net zero carbon emissions have now been made by over 60% of countries and more than 30% of the world’s largest publicly-traded companies.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Event: "What did COP26 deliver (or not) for Africa? And what comes next?" with The Africa Center
Africans generate just a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions but are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and the lack of widespread access to sustainable modern energy services continues to stifle opportunity, job creation, and resilience.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Katie Auth on My Climate Journey Podcast
Katie speaks to host Jason Jacobs of "My Climate Journey", discussing how she thinks about the problem of climate change and energy poverty, and how to make climate change a non-political issue (49:35). Listen to her whole episode below:Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
A coal renaissance is not coming to Africa
Published in World Development Perspectives, Vol. 25, March 2022. As the US and much of Europe pursue aggressive plans to decarbonize, in part by replacing coal-fired power stations with cleaner sources, the global focus has shifted to coal in emerging economies.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Susanna Berkouwer: Measuring Reliability with GridWatch
Reliable electricity is crucial to economic development, but gaps in outage data often prevent utility operators from understanding the scale of the problem.Continue Reading - Memo
Sub-Saharan Africa Should Shift its Focus to Developing Productive Uses of Energy
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to aggressively pursue universal electricity access in a bid to drive economic development, improved health, literacy, food security, and gender equality.Continue Reading - Memo
An update on the Nigerian Electrification Project: electrifying Nigeria’s most underserved
The Nigerian Electrification Project (NEP) is a federal government scheme designed in 2018 with the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), and other partners to provide energy access to under- and unserved communities in Nigeria using renewable sources.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Why the Climate Panic About Africa Is Wrong
Originally appeared in Foreign Policy, December 6, 2021. As climate pledges pile up, a worrying theme is emerging that bold efforts by rich nations to decarbonize the global economy will be ruined by hordes of new consumers in the developing world buying cars, installing air conditioning, and taking planes.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Phasing out coal plants worldwide won’t be easy. These four approaches could help.
More than 40 countries say they’ll phase out coal-fired power plants in the next 20 years Originally appeared in The Washington Post Monkey Cage, December 2, 2021. Reducing coal use around the world is critical for decreasing air pollution and addressing climate change, yet global coal consumption continues to grow in some regions.Continue Reading - Memo
What’s reliability without voltage quality?
This post is co-authored with Joshua Adkins, Eric Hsu, Noah Klugman, Adam Streff, and Alexandra Wall. Policymakers increasingly recognize the importance of energy access for sustainable development.Continue Reading - Memo
Patchy progress: Key takeaways from the African Development Bank’s Electricity Regulatory Index
Policy gaps, regulatory opacity, and the risk of protracted arbitration can bog down or stymie investment in new power projects in most electricity markets across sub-Saharan Africa.Continue Reading - Memo
What makes a “credible alternative” credible? Principles for fossil fuel vetting in development finance
Summary A credible alternative requires an actual project with similar timelines, cost, and energy service. A simple tiered approach would best meet the policy’s intended balance of climate and development goals. The World Bank’s recent experience with a similar approach shows the substantial risk of getting the process wrong. Context.Continue Reading - Blog
What did COP26 deliver for energy poor nations? Our five Big Takeaways
Plenty of hot takes from Glasgow. Here are ours: The Big Story: African leaders stepped up to argue forcefully for fairer treatment and increased agency.Continue Reading - Report
2021 Update: Mapping the Global Market for Advanced Nuclear
The Hub and Third Way collaborated to create a new interactive map that provides a first-of-a-kind ‘nuclear readiness’ assessment and electricity demand projections in 2050 for 148 countries.Continue Reading - Memo
Climate Finance for South Africa at COP26: Watch this space.
Anticipated Announcements at COP26: All eyes on Glasgow Amidst a lot of speculation about climate finance announcements at COP26, South Africa and the EU (on behalf of partners France, Germany, UK, and USA) have confirmed that a deal for an accelerated and just coal phaseout in South Africa will soon be revealed.Continue Reading - Memo
Strategies to increase finance for resilience in small islands
The Caribbean islands rally firmly behind the “1.5° to stay alive” movement, for a limit to 1.5°C of global warming over pre-industrial levels before the end of the current century.1 At the current pace, the earth has already seen 1.1°C of warming. Many Caribbean islands are already experiencing annual hurricane damages that exceed 0.5% of GDP on average, which will only intensify without drastic global climate action.2 As such the Caribbean is prioritizing adaptation to shore up critical infrastructure that may reduce the costs of climate-related disasters and build resilience to future shocks.Continue Reading - Report
Enhancing Public Participation in Kenya’s Power Purchase Agreement Process
While Kenya’s power sector has made huge strides in recent years, it continues to face major challenges including high electricity tariffs, a loss-making utility, and low-quality service.Continue Reading - Reading List
I know, you're sick of reading about COP. Here's your coal crib sheet.
The issues swirling around coal are messy and contentious (not unlike almost everything else about this year’s COP…). Luckily, the Hub’s got you covered: All eyes on India.Continue Reading - Memo
Climate Finance for South Africa: What’s the Deal?
The scramble for climate finance deals ahead of COP26 As countries prepare for what may be the most important United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) since 2015, the balance of bargaining power between developed and developing countries will have significant implications for the ‘climate justice for development’ agenda.1 On one side, wealthy countries desperately need to redeem credibility having failed to contribute their fair share to emissions reductions commitments and to deliver on pledges of financial support to developing countries.Continue Reading - Memo
For Nigerians Without Affordable Electricity, Job Creation Must Come First
Despite significant public expenditure on subsidies, more than 100 million Nigerians still live without reliable access to affordable electricity. Consequently, they also lack prospects for significant income gains, as insufficient and unreliable power continues to hinder productivity and constrain economic growth.Continue Reading - Memo
Natural gas and India’s climate strategy
India faces two great challenges: to meet its global climate commitments while simultaneously achieving its development objectives of eradicating poverty, and improving energy access, health, and education.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Todd Moss and Jake Kincer: Africa's Coal Pipeline
Africa’s current coal capacity is a fraction of the global total, but many fear a potential coal boom on the continent, a concern that has captured media attention and bolstered calls to halt funding for all fossil fuels.Continue Reading - Memo
Why would scarce development finance be needed for gas projects in Africa?
BLUF: Downstream gas projects can have high impact in poor countries but unlocking project financing almost always requires offtaker risk mitigation. Context: African countries will need to meet growing energy demand.Continue Reading - Memo
What will the ‘Just Energy Transition’ mean for African cities? A Kampala case study
Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, joined the Covenant of Mayors in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015, thereby committing to establish and implement strategies for sustainable low-carbon development.Continue Reading - Memo
7 post-election priorities for Ghana’s energy sector
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s first term began in 2016 amidst Ghana’s “dumsor” power crisis and other energy-related challenges including inadequate investment in transmission infrastructure and high commercial and technical losses.Continue Reading - Memo
The African Energy Transition Debate
What does the global race to ‘net-zero’ mean for Nigeria? The energy transition challenge facing African countries is both daunting and unique -- prompting debate over what the race to ‘net-zero’ will mean for them.Continue Reading - Memo
Defining ‘Just Transitions’ in the Africa Context
The latest climate science shows a shrinking carbon budget that requires deep and immediate decarbonization in industrialized economies, and swift action to ensure sustainable, low carbon development pathways in emerging economies.1 At the same time, the climate crisis is embedded within a global context of historic, systemic, and growing inequality which perpetuates deep poverty, resource and labor exploitation, unemployment, unfair distribution of the burden of pollution and emissions, and ultimately heightened social and economic vulnerability to climate impacts. Out of this contradiction, many local movements have emerged advocating that a fair economy and a low-carbon environment must coexist: if the process of transitioning to low carbon economies is not “just,” the outcomes cannot be sustainable.Continue Reading - Memo
First-of-its-kind for Sub-Saharan Africa: what remains for Ghana to successfully launch Tema LNG?
In 2018, Tema LNG Terminal Company (TLTC) began construction on Sub-Saharan Africa’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. TLTC will employ an innovative combination of a purpose-built Floating Regasification Unit (FRU) twinned with a modified LNG carrier to receive, store and re-gasify the LNG. The Tema project will have a capacity of 230 mil.Continue Reading - Memo
Update October 2021: MCC Compacts and the Power Sector
Context: The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a small, focused US agency which provides assistance to countries that (a) promote economic freedom, (b) rule justly, and (c) invest in people.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Dana Kassem: Electrification and industrialization in Indonesia
Energy is essential to industrial development. While there is a gap in understanding the precise mechanisms, Indonesia provides important insights into how electrification might be driving rapid industrialization. Dana Kassem, a Hub fellow and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim, presented her research on electrification and industrialization in Indonesia.Continue Reading - Report
Reframing Climate Justice for Development: Six principles for supporting inclusive and equitable energy transitions in low-emitting energy-poor African countries
Advancing inclusive and equitable energy transitions is one of this century’s most vital global challenges, and one in which development finance will play a crucial role.Continue Reading - Blog
The DFC, World Bank, and how a nuanced compromise on gas financing for poor countries could quietly become a blanket ban (hint: ask the Kosovars)
The debate over whether development finance should be allowed for downstream gas projects appears to be settling toward a compromise that makes such investments rare but not impossible.Continue Reading - Memo
How public funders can help take coal offline ahead of schedule: Three financial options
To achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century, the International Energy Agency projects a need to phase out all unabated coal-fired power plants by 2040.1 This has significant potential implications for emerging markets, since an estimated 70% of existing coal-fired capacity (and over 90% of planned capacity) is in China, India, and about 20 other countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.2 Public and private funders are exploring various market-based options to accelerate the decommissioning of coal generation assets. Potential financing structures to accelerate decommissioning Options include the following three public-private mechanisms, each of which requires some form of concessionary public capital or guarantee: 1.Continue Reading - Memo
How can West Africa prepare for the ‘EV revolution’?
Today, 60% of light duty vehicles in circulation in West Africa are over-aged imported second-hand, primarily from Europe, Japan and the United States.1 These vehicles often have poor emission ratings and are major contributors to urban air pollution.Continue Reading - Blog
Secret electricity contracts hurt consumers, citizens, and climate
In 2019, Ghana paid an estimated $620 million for electricity that the country did not need or use. That’s a sign of the damage done by secret deals for power. When President Nana Akufo-Addo came to power in 2016, his government inherited 43 electricity contracts that the previous administration had signed, guaranteed, or both.Continue Reading - Report
The Case for Transparency in Power Project Contracts: A proposal for the creation of global disclosure standards and PPA Watch
The purpose of a nation’s power sector is to deliver reliable electricity at the lowest cost and for the greatest benefit.Continue Reading - Memo
Commercial & Industrial Solar PV: Threat or Opportunity for KPLC?
Privately owned distributed solar installations have been steadily growing amongst C&I customers in Kenya. Estimates of installed capacity range from 29 MW (UNEP-DTU) to 50 MW (Wood Mackenzie), and could reach 550 MW by 2025, driven primarily by cost savings and power reliability benefits to offtakers.Continue Reading - Memo
Nigeria’s Electrification Roadmap: After two years, where does it stand?
The Nigerian government and German energy company Siemens AG signed the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap (NER) partnership, also known as the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) in 2019.Continue Reading - Memo
The Latest Power Supply Challenges In Ghana
Power supply challenges (including instability, low voltage, and blackouts), known as ‘Dumsor’, have plagued Ghana for years, and remain significant concerns for both industrial and residential customers.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Jake Kincer on Advanced Nuclear Markets Map with AfriNuke Podcast
Jake Kincer overviews the Hub's research assessing the readiness of advanced nuclear adoption around the world with AfriNuke podcast (36:07). Listen to the podcast episode here or below:Continue Reading - Memo
Policy Action for Climate Resilient Energy Systems in Small Islands
The Imperative for Small Island Energy Resilience With over 30 storms named, 2020’s Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record and the tenth consecutive year with eight or more billion-dollar disasters.1 The 2021 hurricane season is already underway, projected to extend the record to six consecutive seasons with above-normal storm activity.2 FIGURE 1: Natural disaster impacts to the Caribbean It is estimated that Caribbean countries suffer annual storm damages equivalent to 17% of GDP on average, with damages often well exceeding the size of the economy – Hurricane Maria is estimated to have cost Dominica 225% of its GDP in 2017.3 Natural disasters occur more frequently and cost more on average in the Caribbean than anywhere else (see Fig 1),4 and are compounded by economic reliance on climate-sensitive industries including agriculture, fisheries, and tourism. As such, the Caribbean consistently ranks as one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change and is prioritizing adaptation measures and infrastructure that may reduce the costs of climate-related disasters and build resilience to future shocks.Continue Reading - Blog
U.S. Treasury walks a line on fossil fuel funding
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury released its Fossil Fuel Energy Guidance for Multilateral Development Banks. This will shape how the U.S.Continue Reading - Memo
The future of Ghana’s energy mix: how to meet demand growth to 2030
Ghana’s rapid population growth and ambitious development agenda will significantly increase electricity demand. The government has developed various strategic plans in response.Continue Reading - Memo
La deuxième vague de la transition énergétique au Sénégal: Du HFO aux énergies renouvelables à un système hybride gaz-énergie renouvelable
Click here to read this article in English. Le Sénégal a pris des mesures énergiques pour intensifier le déploiement des énergies renouvelables Le Sénégal a rapidement augmenté sa capacité d'énergie renouvelable, en grande partie pour réduire sa dépendance historique à l'égard des combustibles liquides coûteux et polluants.Continue Reading - Memo
The second wave of Senegal’s energy transition: From HFO to renewables to a hybrid gas-renewable system
Cliquez ici pour lire cet article en français. Senegal has moved aggressively to scale renewable deployment Senegal has rapidly increased its renewable capacity, in large part to decrease historical dependence on expensive and polluting liquid fuels.Continue Reading - Blog
Power contract transparency in the Pacific: A blog post from the ADB
We're at the very beginning of building an exciting analytical and advocacy program around the potential for power sector transparency to boost accountability, spur private investment, and accelerate clean energy deployment.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Todd Moss on the AfriNuke Podcast
Todd Moss speaks with AfriNuke Podcast on topics of the Hub Modern Energy Minimum, affordable energy for all and the data center needs that accompany energy, and climate adaptation (35:00). Listen below or find this episode on AfriNuke's website.Continue Reading - Memo
Update July 2021: Coal’s Future in Africa is (Still) Dim
This memo uses updated project information since our December 2020 and May 2021 analysis. Coal-to-power today is exceedingly modest outside South Africa Using the latest data, 36 coal-fired power plants totaling ~54 GW of installed capacity provide about a third of all electricity produced on the African continent (Table 1).Continue Reading - Memo
What’s the status of East Africa’s geothermal market?
Geothermal power is produced by drilling thousands of feet into ‘hotspots’ in the Earth’s crust, in a process similar to drilling for natural gas, in order to harness high (150°C+) temperature water for the production of electricity and heat. The Great East African Rift System (EARS) is a major tectonic structure that extends 6,500 kilometers from the Middle East (Dead Sea - Jordan Valley) in the north to Mozambique in the south.Continue Reading - Memo
5 Major Barriers to Scaling Up Geothermal in East Africa
The East African Rift System (EARS) could be a major source of clean energy for East Africa’s economies. However, more than 95% of the region’s total geothermal potential (~20GWe) remains untapped.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #7 Rebekah Shirley: Small Island Nations are Hypervisible & Hyper Invisible
The director of research, data & innovation for WRI Africa talks with Katie & Rose about climate justice and building resilient energy infrastructure in small island developing states, why climate finance pledges don't always translate to reality, obstacles to electrical vehicle uptake in Africa, and Nairobi's reggae scene. Dr.Continue Reading - Memo
Counting the cost: is electricity affordable for Africa’s non-residential consumers?
Electricity for industrialization and economic growth Industrialization is a central tenet of nearly every African country’s economic development program (see, for example: Rwanda Vision 2050, Plan for an Emerging Senegal, Kenya Vision 2030, and the Ethiopia Homegrown Economic Reform Plan).Continue Reading - Blog
How Congress is turning DFC into an agency serving Poland and Israel but not Senegal or Ghana
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is the $60 billion agency that’s supposed to catalyze investment to capital-starved countries, bolster job-creation in emerging markets, and support US foreign policy.Continue Reading - Memo
Sailing into trouble: Why South Africa’s Karpowership deal is creating waves
South Africa has been in the midst of an ever-deepening power supply crisis since the late 2000s – in large part due to a high-level of political intervention in the sector and governance failures at the state-owned power utility Eskom.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode 6: Arvind Subramanian: We Have to Fight Carbon Imperialism
The former chief economic advisor to India’s government on how climate policy has become disconnected from energy needs of poorer countries, the politics of India’s electrical tariffs and why he thinks renewable energy has yet to be proven economically viable there. Arvind Subramanian is Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and a Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Murefu Barasa: Measuring Reliability
Quality electricity is critical to ending energy poverty, but reliability data is scarce, while officially-reported outages often differ greatly from actual consumer experience.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Wind and solar in Africa need grids to match
From Electricity Journal (June 2021) Falling costs of wind and solar have encouraged development agencies and multilateral lenders to restrict financing for new fossil fuel developments.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #5 Ken Caldeira: Let’s Align Self-Interest with Global Climate Interest
One of the world’s most visionary climate scientists tells Katie & Rose why he thinks nuclear energy is key to quelling climate change and delivering prosperity to the developing world, why he’s gone all-positive on Twitter, why considering solar geoengineering won’t stop us from addressing climate change, and what he learned from pumping crocodile stomachs as a grad student. Ken Caldeira has been the senior scientist at Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology on the Stanford University campus in California since 2005.Continue Reading - Memo
Harnessing Africa’s Natural Gas for Industrialization and Economic Diversification: A Nigeria Case Study
Nigeria holds Africa’s largest proven natural gas reserves. Yet despite its enormous domestic energy needs (Nigeria’s annual per capita electricity consumption is one of the lowest in the world), the country consumes only 25% of its commercialized gas supply and less than 1% of the global total.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
U.S. Push for a Global Clean Energy Transition Can Start in Africa
Originally appeared in a Council on Foreign Relations post, May 28, 2021. The new U.S. Climate Finance Plan aims to double contributions to climate funding for developing countries.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Ben Attia: Big trends to watch in emerging market solar
Emerging markets are grappling with the dual challenge of decarbonizing their energy systems while providing abundant, affordable, and reliable energy to everyone.Continue Reading - Memo
Why cash transfers to farmers could unlock reliable electricity for India’s wider economy
India has suffered some of the most significant economic damage worldwide from Covid-19 -- the country entered a technical recession, with the government reporting an 8 percent contraction in GDP over 2020-21.Continue Reading - Memo
Update: Coal’s Future in Africa is (Still) Dim
This memo uses updated project information since our December 2020 analysis. Coal-to-power today is exceedingly modest outside South Africa Using the latest data, 36 coal-fired power plants totaling ~54 GW of installed capacity provide about a third of all electricity produced on the African continent (Table 1).Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #4 Mimi Alemayehou: Climate Justice Means Africa Needs More Energy Investment
The former OPIC, African Development Bank and Black Rhino Group official tells Katie & Rose why she's frustrated with energy and climate finance double standards for Africa, how she would advise President Biden on climate & Africa, & why it's unethical to argue Africa must stay poor to reduce climate change impacts.Continue Reading - Memo
What will Cost- and Service-Reflective Tariffs Mean for the Nigerian Electricity Sector?
Tariff reform is often listed as a high-priority issue in Nigeria. In March 2020, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued an order to transition from demand-based to cost-reflective and service-reflective tariffs.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Increasing Energy Access Ambition for Global Development Power for All: Todd Moss on Power for All Podcast
Power for All's Podcast Host William Brent speaks with Todd Moss on the recent launch of a new framework called the Modern Energy Minimum, which calls for a huge jump in ambition for what the global development community considers basic energy access (25:39). Listen to Todd describe the Modern Energy Minimum here or below: Power for All · Increasing Energy Access Ambition for Global Development: Interview With Todd MossContinue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #3 Rachel Pritzker: Poverty is Not My Favorite Climate Change Solution
The globally recognized climate & energy philanthropist on loving cities, funding overlooked technologies & why optimism is the best approach to tackling climate change. Rachel Pritzker is President and Founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, an organization that supports the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world’s most wicked problems.Continue Reading - Blog
Where is the next step on the ladder out of energy poverty?
Economists at the World Bank recently wrote that “poverty does not end when a household crosses the US$1.90 per person per day International Poverty Line.” We all know that higher levels of income are needed to improve livelihoods and expand economic opportunities.Continue Reading - Memo
Do major DFIs finance fossil fuels?
Development finance institutions (DFIs) help catalyze and direct investment in emerging economies. Their policies toward particular energy technologies and fuel sources therefore influence development trajectories.Continue Reading - Memo
What could the Mambilla Dam do for Nigeria?
The Mambilla Hydropower project will be a complex of four dams and two underground stations in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with John Ayaburi and Morgan Bazilian: "Estimating ‘reasonably reliable’ electricity"
SDG7 commits the world to ending energy poverty by "ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030." Yet we have no accepted international indicator for reliability.Continue Reading - Blog
The Biden Climate Finance Plan: What’s great and what we’re watching closely
On April 22nd, the Biden administration released its Climate Finance Plan, which aims to scale-up financial resources to help developing countries reduce greenhouse emissions, increase resilience, and adapt to climate impacts.Continue Reading - Report
Congressional Testimony: U.S. Policy Options to Support Climate Justice and Prosperity in Africa
Watch the US House of Representative's Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, "The Effects of Climate Change in Africa" and read the full transcript of Todd's testimony below. Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights Thank you Chair Bass, Ranking Member Smith, and other members of the Subcommittee.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #2 Zainab Usman: What Does Net-Zero Mean for Africans?
The new director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Africa Program on why resource curse thinking is wrong, politics is integral to policy & we should stop saying “leapfrogging.” Zainab Usman is the inaugural Director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Episode #1 Mohamed Rali Badissy: Power-Sector Transparency & Energy Access
Mohamed explains why transparency is an overlooked issue in addressing energy poverty, why he thinks decarbonization will increase public demands for more energy transparency, and the one crucial thing about energy poverty nobody’s talking about. Mohamed Rali Badissy is an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, where his research focuses on the interplay between energy regulation and private investment.Continue Reading - Blog
Ten reasons for optimism in the fight against energy poverty and climate change
It’s easy to feel daunted by the overlapping (and overwhelming) challenges of simultaneously ending energy poverty and tackling the climate crisis.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Rose Mutiso on Energy Thinks Podcast
Hub Board member Tisha Schuller meets with Rose Mutiso to discuss the important and the unique considerations for Africa’s energy future in the context of global decarbonization (45:05). Listen below or on Energy Think's podcast page here.Continue Reading - Memo
Lighting the Way: Nighttime Lights for Electrification Planning
Data is often scarce when it relates to the development of electricity infrastructure in emerging economies. Using geographic information system (GIS) databases has become standard practice,1 but information digitization, data collection, and aggregation at scale can be costly and take years.Continue Reading - Blog
Infographic: Visualizing Africa’s emissions and poverty in the world
How we aggregate global data affects how we talk about it, and -- more importantly -- what we do about it.Continue Reading - Memo
Five Low-hanging Fruits in Indian Electricity
Electricity generation in India has risen almost ten-fold since 1985, a dramatic increase leading to a surplus of capacity. Despite this technical surplus, and the claim of “universal village electrification,” 240 million people in the country continue to lack any access to electricity, with the remaining population experiencing regular blackouts, voltage fluctuations and other distribution-related problems.1 Since generation isn’t the issue, what is? The transmission and distribution (T&D) sectors face massive technical constraints and corruption issues - close to 25% of all power generated in India is lost to theft, corruption, and malfunctioning infrastructure.Continue Reading - Report
Going Big on Power Africa: Fortifying the Initiative for Today's Urgent Challenges
10 Recommendations to enhance Power Africa’s impact on energy poverty, economic development, and climate change The US Government’s Power Africa initiative grew out of a bipartisan commitment to addressing energy poverty.Continue Reading - Memo
The impact of self-generation on firms
As availability and quality of grid-based electricity services remain abysmal in many parts of Africa, homes and businesses have sought coping strategies to mitigate the adverse economic impacts of service interruptions.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Sub-Saharan Africa needs fair access to global carbon budget
Originally appeared in a World Economic Forum post, March 22, 2021 The majority of western funding institutions have pledged to stop financing fossil fuel projects overseas. Yet western economies are benefiting from Africa's natural gas resources – this contradiction must be addressed. African nations deserves an adaptation-first energy strategy to level the playing field and build a green economy. The West’s approach to climate prioritizes emissions mitigation and energy austerity, which is exactly the opposite of an adaptation-first energy-abundance strategy that vulnerable African nations need. Africa’s energy poverty is staggering.Continue Reading - Memo
Harnessing Mozambique’s Gas Wealth to Address Energy Poverty
Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries with a GDP per capita under $500, is also home to Africa’s third largest confirmed reserves of natural gas.Continue Reading - Memo
Firm electrification is a continent-wide issue: evidence from the Maghreb
Firms across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) view power outages as significant obstacles to productivity, and firms in the Maghreb share this concern, despite better infrastructure and greater government capacity.Continue Reading - Report
A Case Study of Ghana’s Power Purchase Agreements
Ghana’s electricity sector faces an urgent crisis of immense financial strain that calls for a new, more transparent approach for contracting power in the future.Continue Reading - Multimedia
High Energy Planet - All Episodes
Latest Episodes Episode #14 Ashvin Dayal: We Need to Redefine Energy & Development Progress May 10 | 31min Dayal, Senior Vice President of Power & Climate and The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet at The Rockefeller Foundation, discusses how he got into working on energy, why he believes in raising the definition of energy access, and the power of philanthropy. Episode #13 Moussa Blimpo: Energy is Not the Answer to Everything April 21 | 35 mins Blimpo, Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk’s School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, discusses his experiences turning policy into real-world impact, his evolving views on dominant development narratives, and what climate justice means to him. Episode #12 Uzodinma Iweala: Climate Justice Demands New African Narratives April 6 | 39 mins Iweala, CEO of The Africa Center, discusses the experiences and identities that led him to narrative work, how narratives are formed and how we can shape them in the development and climate justice realm, and what his definition of climate justice means for Africa. Episode #11 Jay Taneja: Using Machine Learning to Inform Energy Access Solutions March 23 | 29 mins Taneja, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, discusses his work on creatively accessing data in data-poor environments, the challenges in electrification via grid connections, and his work as an engineer and professor in the development sector. Episode #10 Katie Hill: The First Pillar of Decarbonization Needs to be Green Growth March 8 | 26 mins Hill, Partner & Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group, talks about the future of African cities, the imperative for green growth in low-income countries on the global path to net zero, and her outlook on scaling enterprise and service delivery in Africa. Episode #9 Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee: Decarbonization is a Very Long Game February 28| 30 mins Banerjee, practice manager in the Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank Group, talks with Katie and Rose about whether net zero makes sense for Africa, what development organizations get wrong about energy access & women, and why hydrogen could be the next solar. Episode #8 Damilola Ogunbiyi: Putting People at the Center of Energy Transitions January 31 | 29 mins The CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) on whether the international community is failing on SDG7, what she thinks net zero means for Africa & how she challenges the stereotype of what an African leader looks like. Episode #7 Rebekah Shirley Lukera: Small Island Nations are Hypervisible & Hyper Invisible July 6 | 26 mins The director of research, data & innovation for WRI Africa talks with Katie & Rose about climate justice and building resilient energy infrastructure in small island developing states, why climate finance pledges don't always translate to reality, obstacles to electrical vehicle uptake in Africa, and Nairobi's reggae scene. Episode #6: Arvind Subramanian: We Have to Fight Carbon Imperialism June 21 | 33 mins The former chief economic advisor to India’s government on how climate policy has become disconnected from energy needs of poorer countries, the politics of India’s electrical tariffs and why he thinks renewable energy has yet to be proven economically viable there. Episode #5 Ken Caldeira: Let’s Align Self-Interest with Global Climate Interest June 7 | 28 mins One of the world’s most visionary climate scientists tells Katie & Rose why he thinks nuclear energy is key to quelling climate change and delivering prosperity to the developing world, why he’s gone all-positive on Twitter, why considering solar geoengineering won’t stop us from addressing climate change, and what he learned from pumping crocodile stomachs as a grad student. Episode #4 Mimi Alemayehou: Climate Justice Means Africa Needs More Energy Investment May 24 | 26 mins The former OPIC, African Development Bank and Black Rhino Group official tells Katie & Rose why she's frustrated with energy and climate finance double standards for Africa, how she would advise President Biden on climate & Africa, & why it's unethical to argue Africa must stay poor to reduce climate change impacts.Continue Reading - Memo
A planner’s guide to acquiring building locations data
Planning efficient, least-cost electricity infrastructure can benefit from using modern tools to gather improved information describing areas of interest. Building location data in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates are important when outlining the most efficient ways to electrify an area with limited resources.Continue Reading - Blog
Sprinters, Coasters, and differentiating a Just Energy Transition: Why South Africa is more like Poland than Kenya
The term ‘developing countries’ has become passé, but it’s especially outdated for thinking about energy and climate. Grouping incredibly diverse societies together can be misleading, a problem that has struck me lately in reading about the energy transition and the frequent implicit or explicit use of South Africa and/or India as stand-ins for other countries across Asia, Africa, or Latin America. India obviously looms very large because of its scale, but is it really indicative of the economic development and energy transition issues faced by other countries? What about South Africa? Many countries are facing the dual challenge of (a) urgently providing infrastructure to enable job growth and higher incomes and also (b) managing decarbonization.Continue Reading - Memo
Power Outages in Growing Cities: Resulting Air Pollution and the Role of Regulation
The global population without electricity access (overwhelmingly located in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia) fell below 1 billion in 2018. But this have-or-have-not measure of access to electricity overlooks how much electricity people actually consume and how reliable the supply is (see more here by Todd Moss).1 Power outages are widespread in growing economies, making electricity unreliable -- even for those with ‘access.’ In addition to disrupting lives and hindering economic activity, outages indirectly cause air pollution issues.2,3 Back-Up Generators: a solution that creates more problems? During power outages, many firms and households turn to back-up diesel generators.Continue Reading - Blog
What the Texas power outages can teach us about Africa’s power future
The historic cold snap that led to widespread power outages across Texas was tragic and continues to be a dangerous situation for the millions affected.Continue Reading - Memo
Who in ASEAN is Ready for Nuclear Power?
Demand for electricity across the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will triple by 2050. Nuclear power is a potential source of clean power to drive industrialization and growing incomes, especially with new smaller, safer, and more flexible designs expected to come to the market over the next decade.Continue Reading - Blog
To Fight Poverty, We Must Raise Global Energy Ambitions
Originally appeared in a post on the Rockefeller Foundation's website, February 16, 2021. The world will not end extreme poverty without ending energy poverty.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Todd Moss on the Power Hungry Podcast
Power Hungry Podcast host Robert Bryce talks to Todd Moss about the challenges of electrification in Africa, the fuels that will likely play the biggest roles in that effort, and the Hub's proposal for a Modern Energy Minimum.Continue Reading - Memo
The Love-Hate Relationship with Self-Generation
Demand for reliable, affordable electricity is growing fast in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), but the power grids aren’t keeping up.1 Roughly one billion people globally with a grid connection experience over 1,000 hours of power outages per year (about 40 days), many of them in SSA.Continue Reading - Memo
Gas markets usually start with industrial applications
The challenge of anchoring nascent gas markets in the power sector Gas-fired power may seem like an attractive option for developing countries trying to expand their electricity supply, especially if they possess domestic gas resources.Continue Reading - Memo
Why is Ghana's Gas Sector Losing Money?
Ghana’s discovery of large quantities of oil and gas in 2007 promised to change the face of the country’s energy industry and drive economic growth through export and the development of new electricity generation capacity.Continue Reading - Blog
Africa is Not a (Coal) Country: A reply to Nature Energy
A recent paper in Nature Energy has grabbed headlines such as ‘Africa's green energy transition unlikely this decade' on the BBC.Continue Reading - Report
Raising Global Energy Ambitions: The 1,000 kWh Modern Energy Minimum
Energy is fundamental to modern living and any competitive prosperous economy. SDG7 calls for modern energy for all, but the indicator for tracking progress against this goal is meeting a very low level of residential electricity consumption.Continue Reading - Multimedia
What is the Modern Energy Minimum?
The Modern Energy Minimum proposal calls for a higher, more inclusive level of electricity consumption as a better access metric to raise global energy ambitions. Learn about it in our video (1 min 40 secs):Continue Reading - Blog
How the Biden Administration should build on Power Africa, and Why
Given everything else happening these days, it’s easy to imagine a new administration putting international development policy on the back burner.Continue Reading - Memo
Who in Africa is Ready for Nuclear Power?
Demand for electricity across Africa will grow many times over by 2050. Nuclear power is a potential source of clean power to drive industrialization and growing incomes, especially with new smaller, safer, and more flexible designs expected to come to the market over the next decade.Continue Reading - Memo
Powering Africa’s Data Infrastructure: No Power, No Digital Transformation
COVID-19 makes a chronic issue more urgent ELECTRICITY ACCOUNTS FOR MORE THAN HALF OF DATA CENTER OPERATING COSTS Massive changes in how the world works, learns and does business have been made possible by the Internet and related information and communications technology (ICT).Continue Reading - Blog
What will the UK’s fossil fuel “ban” really mean for development?
At the recent UN Climate Ambition Summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a major policy announcement, a move being hailed as having made the UK “the first major industrialized nation to end all public finance for fossil fuel projects overseas.” But that isn’t exactly true. In fact, the policy makes (important) exceptions to enable energy for development in the world’s poorest countries, where climate change intersects with widespread energy poverty.Continue Reading - Blog
Infographic: What is sub-Saharan Africa’s contribution to global CO2 emissions?
One of the most striking infographics from the wonderful Our World in Data is the treemap which asks “Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions?” In the original version from Hannah Ritchie, sub-Saharan Africa is so small that only South Africa and Nigeria even warrant labels. So, with Hannah’s generous permission, we used her data to recreate a reconfigured graphic.Continue Reading - Blog
Why EIA’s universal access model for Africa (definitely) overstates coal and (likely) understates solar
How would the large-scale deployment of off-grid solar technologies affect the future of Africa’s power generation mix? This is a critical question for African governments and investors considering how and where to prioritize energy infrastructure -- and what impacts those decisions will have on poverty alleviation, economic growth, and climate. The US Energy Information Agency’s “Off-Grid Electricity Development in Africa” report lays out two potential pathways to achieve universal electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa1 by 2030: Relying solely on central grid systems results in a doubling of coal generation and a tripling of natural gas generation by 2050.Continue Reading - Memo
Coal's Future in Africa is Dim
As all regions transition to a cleaner energy future, coal-fired power is in the spotlight. As the region with the greatest shortages of energy, might Africa have a coal future? Coal-to-power today is very modest outside South Africa As of 2020, 34 coal-fired power plants totaling ~53GW of installed capacity provide about a third of all electricity produced on the African continent (see Table 1).Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Varun Sivaram: "US Energy Innovation and India’s future"
Hub Fellow Varun Sivaram discusses with Hub Policy Director Katie Auth what might be next for Mission Innovation as US energy and climate policy prepare for a reset in 2021, and what industrializing clean energy may look like in emerging markets such as India.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: " ‘Tis the season to be voting…" Todd Moss on The ARC Insider
ARC Insider hosts Karen Allen and Tara O'Connor are joined by Todd Moss to cover elections inside and outside of Africa with a particular focus on how the US election results might impact US-Africa relations. Listen to their full conversation here or below:Continue Reading - Blog
Xbox, Playstation, and global energy inequality
Americans take for granted 24/7 internet, cloud data storage, and on-demand air conditioning, all powered by abundant electricity. During the pandemic, many are taking solace in Netflix, Zoom, Call of Duty, Animal Crossing, or Among Us -- again requiring lots more electricity around the clock.Continue Reading - Memo
What are Africa’s ‘Zombie Utilities’?
Utilities are among the most cited obstacles to functioning, modern power systems in Sub Saharan Africa’s emerging economies. While the challenges each country faces are unique, “zombie utilities” are common and typically characterized by five traits: 95% IN SSA, 95% OF UTILITIES DO NOT RECOVER FULL COSTS, AND ONLY 50% COVER OPERATING COSTS Operates at a loss.Continue Reading - Memo
Power Sector Structures in South Asia
Over the past 30 years, most countries in South Asia have introduced market-oriented reforms geared at addressing structural obstacles to power sector development.Continue Reading - Memo
Mapping Africa's approaches to power sector reform
Over the past 30 years, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have introduced market-oriented reforms geared at addressing structural obstacles to power sector development.Continue Reading - Memo
Is Ghana’s Dumsor Over?
‘Dumsor,’ which means ‘off-on’ in the Akan language, has become a household name for the persistent and erratic power outages in Ghana.Continue Reading - Post
Rose Mutiso on TED: The energy Africa needs to develop — and fight climate change
Rose Mutiso outlines how African countries need more energy, not less, to fight climate change and deserve the majority of the world's carbon budget to exercise their right to opportunity at the 2020 TED Countdown Conference. Watch her talk (6:42) here, or below: Continue Reading - Post
Varun Sivaram on TED: India's historic opportunity to industrialize using clean energy
Hub Fellow Varun Sivaram discusses how India has a historic opportunity to power its industrialization with clean energy, and proposes a plan for India to reimagine its economy with renewable energy at its heart at the 2020 TED Countdown Conference. Watch his talk (10:58) here, or below: Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Jessica Lovering and Third Way's Jackie Kempfer: "Mapping the Global Market for Advanced Nuclear"
Advanced nuclear has the potential to help meet both future energy demand and climate goals. But is this technology just for rich countries? And which countries are really going to be ready? To help answer these questions, the Hub and our friends at Third Way created the first-ever interactive map of nuclear readiness and projected electricity demand out to 2050 for 148 countries.Continue Reading - Report
Mapping the Global Market for Advanced Nuclear
The Hub and Third Way collaborated to create a new interactive map that provides a first-of-a-kind ‘nuclear readiness’ assessment and electricity demand projections in 2050 for 148 countries.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: "A Zombie-Free Recovery of Africa's Energy Sector" on Into Africa by CSIS
Energy development is at the heart of an inclusive African recovery from Covid-19, but how can we supercharge the region's power sector? Todd Moss (Energy for Growth Hub), Rose Mutiso (Energy for Growth Hub; Mawazo Institute), and Kate Steel (Nithio) join host CSIS Judd Devermont to discuss the future of Africa's energy sector, South Africa's struggling diplomacy in Zimbabwe, and key challenges facing African think tanks. Tune in below, or with CSIS here.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Katie Auth: "Power Africa's Future"
Hub Policy Director Katie Auth examines Power Africa, including lessons learned for the next phase in the fight against energy poverty and how the initiative may inform U.S.Continue Reading - Blog
New database release: RACE measures how unreliability drives true power costs
Last fall, the Energy for Growth Hub proposed a new metric, reliability-adjusted cost of electricity or RACE, to estimate the effective cost paid by firms for reliable electricity.Continue Reading - Report
New Pilot Database: Understanding the RACE Metric
Reliability-adjusted cost of electricity (RACE) estimates the cost of industrial tariffs for grid power plus the additional cost of backup generation, weighted for how often grid power is unavailable. This incorporates data for: Tariff price.Continue Reading - Blog
How the DFC’s New Energy Investments in Mozambique Show the Agency’s Balanced Approach
Originally appeared in a Center for Global Development post, September 16, 2020 In its latest batch of investments around the world, the DFC has approved two sizable energy projects in Mozambique.Continue Reading - Memo
Indonesia’s Power Goals: What’s next after universal electrification?
The world’s fourth-most populous country is rapidly reaching universal electrification, with almost 99% of its more than 270 million people considered electrified. However, the sector is not without its problems. A major outage hit the greater Jakarta area in mid-2019, affecting over 30 million people and paralyzing the economy, while shorter blackouts are a common occurrence.Continue Reading - Memo
3.5 Billion People Lack Reliable Power
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 commits the world to ending energy poverty by “ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030.” The dominant measurement of progress against SDG7 is the access rate, which measures the number of people with basic household electricity.Continue Reading - Blog
Announcement: Katie Auth is the Hub’s new Policy Director
I’m thrilled to welcome Katie Auth to the Hub as our first-ever Policy Director. Katie brings years of practical experience working at the nexus of energy and development in both the U.S.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Measuring “Reasonably Reliable” access to electricity services
From Electricity Journal (August 2020) While the electricity access rate is regularly measured in most countries, there are no routinely tracked metrics that measure reliability.Continue Reading - Memo
The problem with Kenya Power’s revenue model in three graphs
Kenya Power is one of the largest electric utilities in Africa, connecting more than 7.5 million customers.1 Like many utilities the world over, Kenya Power struggles with fully recovering operating costs.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Why Hasn’t Africa Gone Digital?
Originally appeared in a Scientific American post, August 11, 2020 COVID-19 has spurred massive changes in how the world works, learns and does business—changes made possible by the internet and digital infrastructure. But without power, there is no internet.Continue Reading - Blog
What happens to global emissions if Africa triples down on natural gas for power?
What exactly is Africa’s role in climate mitigation? We already know that the entire continent accounts for just 3% of cumulative CO2 emissions.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Jessica Lovering on The Power Hungry Podcast
Jessica Lovering talks with Power Hungry host Robert Bryce about her work with The Energy For Growth Hub on nuclear power for emerging economies, the challenges facing the nuclear sector, the advantages of small modular reactors, and why they have the potential to be, as she put it, the “iPhone of nuclear reactors.” Listen to their discussion here, or below. Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Rose Mutiso: "How will Africa’s Power Sector Recover?"
Hub Research Director Rose Mutiso proposes a post-COVID agenda for Africa's power sector that doesn’t simply revert to the old status quo.Continue Reading - Memo
Back to Basics: Tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria need a cheap, reliable and continuous supply of electricity
Nigeria has one of the most rapidly growing tech sectors on the continent, fueled by a robust supply of high-skill workers and venture capitalists looking for new markets.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
12 reasons why natural gas should be part of Africa's clean energy future
Originally appeared in a World Economic Forum (WEF) post, July 23, 2020. Several high-profile financiers of emerging markets infrastructure, such as the UK government, are actively considering a blanket ban on fossil fuels that would preclude any new projects involving natural gas.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Coffee Break Briefing with Jay Taneja: "What’s Happening to Electricity Demand in Africa?"
Hub Fellow and Assistant Professor at UMass-Amherst Jay Taneja walks us through the latest trends with the most up-to-date satellite data in our first ever Coffee Break Briefing.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
SE4All: A post-COVID agenda for a 'zombie-free' recovery of Africa's power markets
Originally appeared in a Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) post, July 21, 2020 COVID-19 and the global recession are a gut-punch to Africa’s battle against energy poverty.Continue Reading - Blog
Is nuclear power only for wealthy countries?
The debate over which countries should pursue nuclear energy is timely because the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is considering lifting its prohibition on financing nuclear power projects.Continue Reading - Memo
How electrification causes industrialization: Lessons from Indonesia
Investing in electrification has long been considered an essential ingredient for industrial development, and ultimately growth. In practice, the evidence is mixed, and can vary substantially across different contexts.Continue Reading - Blog
Is Nuclear Power Pro-Development? Six reasons why the DFC should lift its ban
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is considering a change to its current ban on financing projects with a nuclear reactor, a relic holdover policy from its predecessor agency OPIC.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Todd Moss: "Growing the Power Grid in Africa" on Resources Radio
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Todd Moss on efforts to build electricity capacity across Africa, as well as economic and political hurdles that complicate the expansion of power.Continue Reading - Memo
Six Ways to Improve Nigeria’s Crumbling Transmission Network
Written in collaboration with Nextier Advisory Context: Nigeria’s transmission network has long been a weak link in the country’s electricity value chain.Continue Reading - Blog
India gets creative to power the next phase of its renewable energy transition
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, 2020 is shaping up as a pivotal year in India’s transition toward renewable energy. Over the prior decade, India dramatically accelerated its deployment of wind and solar power (see figure). Now it must grapple with the challenges of integrating ever-larger quantities of volatile renewable energy into its grid. In the first half of 2020, the government has successfully concluded two creative tenders for flexible renewable energy that represent steps in the right direction—even though serious challenges remain to keep India’s energy transition on track.Continue Reading - Memo
Economic Benefits of Natural Gas Production: The Case of Ghana’s Sankofa Gas Project
Ghana is fast approaching 100% electrification, but continues to battle with irregular electrical power supply. In 2014, Ghanaians experienced severe power outages -- known as “dumsor” -- with the productivity losses estimated at 2 percent of GDP.1,2 Reliability has since improved but hydropower remains vulnerable to erratic rainfall (for generation via the Bui, Kpong and Akosombo dams) and thermal power is subject to volatile oil prices and inconsistent gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP).3 Domestic natural gas production could provide reliable and low cost electricity for Ghana, if it can be developed.Continue Reading - Memo
Too big to succeed? Africa’s clean energy mega-projects
When it comes to deploying renewables for Africa’s urgent need for a high-energy future, big is indeed beautiful -- and necessary. But history suggests that proposing massive coordinated infrastructure projects as quick fix/catch-all solutions to a country or region’s energy challenges is far less straightforward than the alternative: fostering a market for utility-scale renewables. Supersizing project ambitions beyond the capacity limits of governments, utilities, and grids may not ultimately be the fastest or most cost-effective path to achieving infrastructure goals.Continue Reading - Q&A
Solar's Future, India's Mega-Market, and Why Saying No Isn't a Viable Energy Strategy: Q&A with Varun Sivaram
Varun Sivaram heads anyone’s short list of global solar power experts. A physicist, best-selling author and clean energy technology expert with experience spanning the corporate, policy and academic sectors, Sivaram was most recently the CTO of ReNew Power, India’s largest renewable energy firm. His 2018 book, Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet, was heralded by the Financial Times as “the best available overview of where the industry finds itself today, and a road map for how it can reach that brighter future.”Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss on the Climate Solutions Series by CSIS
In the second session of the Climate Solutions Series features experts Jesse Jenkins (Princeton University), Sue Tierney (Analysis Group), Chris Shelton (AES; AES Next); and Todd Moss (Energy for Growth Hub) for a discussion of the important themes and issues facing the power sector in the context of decarbonization.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Jessica Lovering on The Weeds
One of our Hub Fellow's, Jessica Lovering, joins Matt Yglesias to discuss the role of advanced nuclear in combatting climate change.Continue Reading - Memo
Impact of Self-Generation on Willingness to Pay
Electricity systems across many developing countries face tariffs set below cost recovery, typically due to social and political pressures. Utilities are often stuck, because the energy infrastructure in most frontier markets is insufficient or decrepit, and non-cost-reflective tariffs mean these utilities are chronically low on cash-flow and usually unable to attract significant private investment. Tariff reform is usually seen as a crucial step toward making the electricity system sustainable and luring capital for further enhancements to boost quality and reliability.Continue Reading - Memo
How Advanced Nuclear Technologies Could Accelerate Deployment Across Africa
In early 2020, the United Arab Emirates will start up the massive 5.6 GW Barakah nuclear power plant, the first country in nearly a decade to successfully start a new nuclear power program.Continue Reading - Memo
Why Energy Demand Demands More Attention
If you were planning to open a coffee shop in your neighborhood, you would want to know how many cups your potential customers might consume each day.Continue Reading - Blog
Our latest thoughts on Kenya’s power sector challenges
Kenya is the epicenter of Africa’s energy transition. The country is now the world’s 8th largest geothermal power producer, has the continent’s largest wind farm, a vibrant offgrid energy market, and an aggressive last mile campaign to connect every citizen.Continue Reading - Memo
Energy priorities in high-performing ASEAN
ASEAN countries are a diverse group of countries at different stages of economic development and with different energy challenges. Some members, like Singapore and Brunei are high electricity consumption markets, while Myanmar and Cambodia are very low consumers and still working to deliver universal access. Fast economic growth and aggressive electrification efforts will drive higher demand, which is expected to more than double electricity consumption by 2040.1 The region’s current electricity production is over 80% fossil fuels, a trend poised to make ASEAN one of the largest contributors to global warming.2 At the same time, ASEAN is also at great risk of the impacts of climate change, with some members poorly equipped to cope with its effects without solving its electrification constraints.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Big data and the electricity sector in African countries
From World Development Perspectives (January 2020) A number of “disruptive” data science and sensor technologies are creating new opportunities for addressing global challenges.Continue Reading - Memo
LCOE and its Limitations
LCOE = {(overnight capital cost * capital recovery factor + fixed O&M cost)/(8760 * capacity factor)}+(fuel cost * heat rate)+(variable O&M cost)[1] What is the Levelized Cost of Electricity? LCOE is the net present value of the unit-cost of electricity over the lifetime of a system. Pros of LCOE Simple.Continue Reading - Memo
Three Top Priorities for Nigeria’s 2020 Power Agenda
Successive interventions, including privatization, have not yet resolved Nigeria’s persistent power sector challenges. This year, the newly-appointed Honorable Minister of Power will continue on the path towards achieving key power sector goals, namely increased reliability and reduced revenue loss.Continue Reading - Memo
Could natural gas help India exit coal?
Context: Energy demand in India is forecast to double between now and 2040 as the country strives to improve living standards for its population of over 1.3 billion.Continue Reading - Memo
Power-to-gas for long-term energy storage
Summary High penetration of variable renewables requires short-term and seasonal storage A promising option is to use excess renewable power to produce hydrogen or “synthetic natural gas” which can be stored for later usage. Power-to-gas needs much of the same infrastructure as gas-to-power, thus limiting risks of climate stranded assets.Continue Reading - Memo
How big is Nigeria's power demand?
Context: Nigeria has Africa’s largest population and economy, but Nigerians consume 144 kwh per capita annually, only 3.5% as much as South Africans.1 With only 12 GW installed, and typically just one-third of that delivered, Nigerian power production falls far short of demand, which is a primary constraint on economic growth.Continue Reading - Memo
Reflections on Nigeria’s Power Sector Privatization
Nigeria’s power sector was unbundled and partially privatized to establish a competitive market intended to improve management and efficiency, attract private investment, increase generation, and provide reliable and cost-efficient power supply.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
WEF: The 5 mistakes we’re making in the fight against global energy poverty
From the World Economic Forum: Energy consumption, in all its many forms, enables everything from how we live, eat and move, to how we work and communicate.Continue Reading - Blog
Jessica Lovering: Three Surprises from Talking Nuclear in Nigeria
I’ve written on Nigeria’s nuclear power ambitions before (here and here), but last month marked my first visit to the country.Continue Reading - Report
The Reliability-Adjusted Cost of Electricity (RACE): A new metric for the fight against energy poverty
Adequately tracking progress against energy poverty requires a metric that is more closely tied to income and employment than the commonly-used household access rate.Continue Reading - Memo
Saving Lives and Generating Energy from Natural Gas in Rwanda's Lake Kivu
Danger and possibility under Lake Kivu Beneath the surface of the lake lies 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of methane gas and 300 bcm of carbon dioxide originating from local volcanic activity.1 Without intervention, a gas eruption could occur within the next century.2 Located between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over 2 million people live on the shores of the lake.Continue Reading - Memo
Big 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-Eds & Articles
OneZero: Global Energy Inequality Goes Deeper Than Bitcoin
From OneZero: Modern life is amazingly energy intensive. All those computers, data servers, and air conditioners devour a lot of electricity.Continue Reading - Memo
For 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 - Memo
Power 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 - Memo
The 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 - Memo
Costs 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-Eds & Articles
Bloomberg: Africa’s Cities Are About to Boom – and Maybe Explode
From Bloomberg: 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 - Blog
Bitcoin, 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 - Memo
The Future of Bangladesh’s Power Sector
While the country will likely achieve universal access soon, load-shedding is still a common occurrence and a major obstacle to economic activity. In order to prepare for a population that will be far bigger (200 million or more by 2050) and aspires to be richer (aiming for Developed Country status by 2041), the government plans to build a total of 60 gigawatts (GW) of new generation by 2041.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Scientific American: How a Key Energy Technology Can Help Developing Countries
From Scientific American: A global energy transition is under way. Its potential to redraw the landscape will be most profoundly felt in developing economies.Continue Reading - Memo
India’s Next Generation of Electricity Priorities
India, already the third largest electricity producer in the world, is rapidly expanding its power sector. In 2017, India alone accounted for a quarter of the rise in global power demand and is projected to more than triple its electricity consumption by 2040.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss on Resources Radio
Host Daniel Raimi of Resources For the Future talks with Todd Moss. They cover two major topics: avoiding the so-called "oil curse" in the nation of Guyana, and supporting economic growth in the developing world by improving energy access for businesses and industries. Listen to the whole Podcast below or here.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss on Breakthrough Dialogues
It is universally true that all rich countries use a lot of energy. This might make you think about in-home systems: refrigerators, lights, etc.Continue Reading - Report
Working Group: America’s Global Infrastructure Opportunity
The launch of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (USDFC) in October 2019 is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate capital flows into emerging and frontier markets in support of U.S.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Axios Voices: Global energy programs expand access but aim too low on goals
From Axios: Electrification initiative Power Africa has been faulted in a USAID Inspector General report for overstating the impact of its development efforts by counting the delivery of solar lanterns as new electricity connections. Why it matters: Accurate measures of progress are essential for reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7: to ensure reliable and affordable energy worldwide by 2030.Continue Reading - Memo
The Virtuous Cycle of Clean Cooking and Electricity Costs
Access to electricity and clean cooking solutions are separate objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). Programs tackling these aims have been largely disconnected, however new research identifies virtuous cycles from their joint consideration: increasing electric cookstove penetrations increases electricity consumption, lowers electricity unit-costs through the realization of economies of scale, and improves the viability of electric cookstoves, continuing the cycle.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
SSIR: Scaling Power for Global Prosperity
More than a billion people worldwide live without access to basic electricity: One in every six people on Earth doesn’t have enough energy at home for indoor lighting or even to charge a mobile phone. But as appalling as that figure is, it has misled policy-makers, nonprofits, and funders about the true extent of global energy poverty.Continue Reading - Memo
The ABC's of Power Africa
Context: Power Africa is a US government electrification initiative. With over $50 billion in aggregate commitments since its creation in 2013, it is one of the world’s largest public-private development partnerships.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss with Mark Goldberg of UN Dispatch
Energy Poverty conventionally refers to the lack of household electricity. Over 1 billion people live without reliable sources of electricity — but a new group seeks to change how we think about energy poverty. We kick off talking about energy poverty–specifically why the traditional definition of that term may be an inadequate understanding of the problem.Continue Reading - Memo
How to Resolve the Tariff Disputes Blocking Nigeria’s Solar Project Pipeline?
This Memo was drafted in collaboration with Patrick Okigbo of Nextier Advisory In 2016, Nigeria signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) worth US$2.5 billion with 14 independent power producers (IPPs) to build a total 1,125 megawatts of installed solar capacity for the national grid.Continue Reading - Memo
Gas Flaring: Why does it happen and what can stop it?
When natural gas is brought to the surface but cannot easily be used, it is burned for disposal or “flared.” Flaring mainly happens when gas is produced as a byproduct of oil extraction.Continue Reading - Memo
Ghana’s Energy Goals: What next after universal access?
As the country of Ghana approaches universal access, we examine Ghana's power sector goals.Continue Reading - Memo
Power and the Urban Informal Economy
About half of the world’s employed people working outside agriculture are in the informal economy. Because this diverse sector exists outside the rules and formal administration, little is understood about the current and future power needs of urban informal economies.Continue Reading - Memo
Top 10 Barriers to Utility-Scale Solar in Sub-Saharan Markets
Given pervasively high electricity tariffs across the region and rapidly falling CAPEX costs, utility-scale solar may be a profitable cornerstone solution to Sub-Saharan Africa’s energy needs. But large-scale solar projects face major execution barriers that cause high pipeline attrition.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
WEF: Is sub-Saharan Africa ready for the electric vehicle revolution?
Originally posted on World Economic Forum. Africa is urbanizing faster than any other continent, at a rate of 4% every year, compared to the global average of 2%.Continue Reading - Memo
MCC Compacts and the Power Sector
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a small, focused US agency which provides assistance to countries that (a) promote economic freedom, (b) rule justly, and (c) invest in people. Learn how it invests in the power sector.Continue Reading - Memo
Energy Access Metrics in the World Bank’s RISE Data
The World Bank’s Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) is a set of indicators intended “to help compare national policy and regulatory frameworks for sustainable energy.” Morgan Bazilian discusses key takeaways.Continue Reading - Blog
For Africa, it's Grid + Off-grid, not Grid vs. Off-grid
Can Africans increase their access to energy faster and more broadly through an on-grid or an off-grid approach? Practitioners, advocates and academics who work in the African energy space often fixate on this debate. But the 600 million people without access to electricity in Africa (and yes, it’s still 600 million) would likely prefer a little less debate and a lot more action.Continue Reading - Blog
Infographic - Are We Learning the Right Energy Lesson from Mobile Phones? The Energy Iceberg Says No
The mobile phone revolution is allowing countries to skip landlines, prompting many observers to assume countries might also skip building an electricity grid and jump right to distributed home energy systems (e.g., here and here). New disruptive technologies are exciting and alluring, especially in sub-Saharan markets where the unmet infrastructure needs are huge. After all, if you can charge your smartphone with a rooftop solar kit, then who needs power plants and a grid?Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss Talks Energy for Growth with CGD
When we think about energy access, we tend to think about making sure everyone can light their homes and charge their mobile phones.Continue Reading - Multimedia
Podcast: Todd Moss on Electrifying Africa’s Future
Last month, Todd Moss joined Dan Runde, Director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS, on his podcast series Building the Future. Todd discussed what led him to launch the Energy for Growth Hub, a new global network connecting research and policymakers to build high-energy systems.Continue Reading - Memo
Empowered Planning with Models, Satellites, & Machine Learning
Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies have the capability to revolutionize large-scale electrification planning. Advances in computer-based electrification planning models, satellite imaging, and machine learning are able to optimize infrastructure planning, lowering the costs of electricity provision and expediting progress.Continue Reading - Memo
Competitive Auctions and Ultra-Low Solar Bids
The 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.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
CNN: More affordable electricity would transform Africa. Here's how to get there.
Originally posted in CNN Business: It's no surprise that economies around the world need electricity for economic growth and job creation — not just for keeping the lights on.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
ERSS: Signalling, governance, and goals: Reorienting the United States Power Africa initiative
Originally in Energy Research & Social Science: Power Africa, the United States’ effort to boost electrification on the continent launched in 2013, has made an impressive start.Continue Reading - Memo
The Seven Major Threats to Kenya’s Power Sector
Kenya is one of the few African countries that produces more electricity than it consumes. Despite this progress, many households still lack access, those with connections experience poor quality, while reliability stifles economic growth.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Foreign Affairs: Can Nigeria Solve Its Energy Crisis?
Nigeria is home to one in every five Africans and it has the continent’s largest economy. More than half of Nigerians are under 20 years old. Whether all these bright young people will drive growth or generate instability depends largely on whether Nigeria’s economy can produce jobs for them. And Nigeria won’t be able to create jobs at the required pace until it solves its energy crisis.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Hindustan Times: Consumers upfront in tale of two reforms in Andhra Pradesh
From the Hindustan Times: Ashwini K Swain, one of the authors of Mapping Power, examines Andhra Pradesh’s game-changing plans to improve electricity access without increasing costs for consumers.Continue Reading - Memo
Five Electricity Policy Priorities for Nigeria
Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, but also has one of the widest energy gaps in the world. With a quickly growing population, Nigeria urgently needs to improve its power sector.Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
Scientific American: To End Poverty, Increase Access to Energy
Board Member Tisha Schuller and Advisor Seth Levey write in Scientific American: We have come to understand that energy is among the most important anti-poverty tools....Continue Reading - Op-Eds & Articles
SSIR: Why Energy Philanthropy Is High-Impact Philanthropy
Board Member Rachel Pritzker writes in the Stanford Social Innovation Review: Imagine living permanently without power. What would this mean for your health, for your children’s education, for your livelihood....Continue Reading - Memo
Measurements of Energy Access: A better way?
Energy access is one of the keystone development metrics. But how do we define "access", and what limitations does this methodology have?Continue Reading - Memo
Job Creation and Energy in Africa
Africa needs jobs. Jobs require energy. A low energy future is a jobless future. If millions of young Africans and their families are to escape poverty and have a more stable and prosperous future, the challenges of large-scale power must be solved.Continue Reading - Reading List
Best Open Sources for Research and Documents on Electricity in Nigeria
Nesistats: Began in 2015 (and made public in 2017) as an initiative of the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President to share vital statistics, reports, projects on the power sector, as part of the Power Sector Recovery Programme in Nigeria. NERC: The Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) online library provides useful documents, data, and reports on the electricity sector. NBET: The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) company provides industry and market data as well as working papers on the power sector. Energy Mix Report: an energy publication, news service and resource centre for industry professionals with a primary focus on the Nigerian energy sector. PSRP Brochure: Provides overview of Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) Nigeria Electricity Hub: An online portal that provides a variety of platforms for the analysis and dissemination of power sector-related information and dialogues. Gas Generation: http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/download/gas-power-generation/ Hydro Generation: http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/download/hydro-power-generation-report/ Solar Generation: http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/download/solar-power-generation-report/ Transmission: http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/download/transmission-fixing-the-weakest-link/ Distribution: http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/download/distribution-addressing-the-final-link/ Journals: Audu, E., Paul, S.O.Continue Reading - Memo
Gas-to-Power Value Chain
Many countries have vast gas resources, but too often they are squandered or simply exported rather than used domestically. Our gas lead, Mark Thurber, describes what is necessary to fix the gas-to-power value chain.Continue Reading