Focus Area: Access to Energy

Patience has helped Husk Power Systems achieve impact and viability

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Shell Foundation provides patient grant funding and extensive support to our social enterprise partners with the objectives of creating maximum impact and making those enterprises financially viable. Husk Power Systems’ recent announcement of commercial investment from Shell Technology Ventures LLC, Swedish development finance institution Swedfund International and ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies, ENGIE group’s impact investment fund,…

How innovations in technology are delivering impact in emerging markets

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Two recent additions to the SF portfolio are using innovative technology and business models to deliver increased and improved access to energy in Africa, including into some new and challenging markets. SF is supporting BBOXX and Aceleron as part of our strategic partnerships with the UK Government and USAID, which aim to create and scale…

Making it Rain: Emerging Opportunities for Improved Solar Water Pumps

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By Charlie Nichols and Samir Ibrahim, Co-Founders of SunCulture Four out of five African families depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet just four percent use irrigation with the rest relying on increasingly unreliable rainfall. We know that switching to irrigated agriculture can increase yields by up to 90 percent when compared to nearby rain-fed…

Gender inclusion strategies for SMEs in the off-grid energy sector

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SF is working with Value for Women to present the business case of gender inclusion strategies for SMEs in the off-grid energy sector. The lessons emerging, based on the first 11 months of testing approaches of SF’s portfolio of enterprises explore the potential impact to businesses, including: How SMEs can integrate and adopt gender inclusion…

Access to Energy Storage – Insights from off-grid energy providers and market enablers

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Energy storage has become a key issue for the solar industry. SF is working with the Grantham Institute at Imperial College, London, on a report exploring solutions for off-grid energy organisations, looking at technology choices, challenges and opportunities. Here we share the initial findings on technology availability and supply chains, realised costs of storage solutions,…

M-KOPA Labs off-grid R&D brings whole new grid classifications

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Shell Foundation has supported M-KOPA since 2011 to establish its solar and mobile technology solution and to provide affordable, clean and bright energy to off-grid villages in East Africa. In 2016, M-KOPA Labs was established to accelerate the company’s ability to produce innovative, larger capacity appliances capable of interfacing with off-grid energy. In developing new…

Achieving SDG 7: The need to disrupt off-grid electricity financing in Africa

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Shell Foundation and Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors try to get a realistic idea of the quantum and type of capital needed to reach the off-grid component of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), defined as all households with at least a large portable system or a solar home system. Read the report…

Off-grid energy country focus: Uganda

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In 2017, Shell Foundation and Open Capital Advisors came together to pilot a new approach to accelerate energy access in Uganda. With support from local the UK Government and USAID, and the Government of Uganda, the result is a dedicated and neutral intermediary that provides balanced data and advice to enterprises, investors and policy-makers; coordinates…

Building a salesforce fit to travel the ‘Last Mile’

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For the last two years, Shell Foundation has been working with elite sales specialists, Scott Roy and Roy Whitten, to understand how social enterprises who serve rural consumers can adopt cutting-edge sales techniques and salesforce management practices – in order to increase traction with low-income customers. The Whitten & Roy Partnership has now provided low…

Lighting the way for women: How sustainable energy SMEs are adopting new strategies to build gender-inclusive sales teams

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By Rebecca Fries and Stephanie Finigan, Value for Women Clean energy represents one of the fastest growing sectors today. A 2017 report by the Energy Information Administration highlighted that for the first time in the United States, wind and solar accounted for 10% of all electricity generation in the country[1]. According to the International Renewable…