Category: Ayrton Challenge

Inspira farms
Summary

Over the last four years, innovations supported by the Ayrton Fund have helped create and supported 210,000 sustainable long-term jobs in the clean energy market primarily across Sub-Saharan Africa, alongside impacts in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and increasingly through local businesses.


Behind that headline figure are real people, skills and livelihoods that underpin the transition to a low-carbon economy and wider systems change. The Ayrton Fund Green Jobs Insights Study explores how clean energy innovation is creating and supporting jobs across emerging markets, and the systems needed to measure this impact effectively. Alongside the report, our short films showcase how this translates on the ground, with stories from BURN Manufacturing in Kenya and InspiraFarms bringing these impacts to life.

Burn Kenya
Summary

BURN Manufacturing is helping drive Kenya’s transition to clean cooking by providing efficient, affordable alternatives to traditional stoves, helping reduce indoor air pollution, lower fuel costs and cutting carbon emissions for households.

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS)
mecs.org.uk Mecs@lboro.ac.uk
Summary

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is a research and innovation programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) that seeks to accelerate the uptake of clean and modern cooking practices in Africa, South Asia, and the Indo Pacific. It develops research on modern energy cooking services (including on socio-economic and technical innovations in the sector), it funds pilots to scale-up new clean cooking technologies and business models in developing countries, it conducts policy research to inform and influence countries and key stakeholders to adopt principles around MECS in their own strategies and planning, and it funds World Bank-led global tracking tools around modern energy cooking. MECS leads the ‘Modern Cooking’ Ayrton Challenge.

Low Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA)
efficiencyforaccess.org info@efficiencyforaccess.org
Summary

Low-Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA) is a research and innovation programme focused on improving the efficiency, performance, and availability of electrical appliances and solar powered technologies suited to off-grid and weak-grid settings, while lowering their cost for consumers including in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific. This includes appliances that deliver critical energy services such as refrigeration, cooling and communications (e.g., fridges, fans, TVs, solar water pumps) and technological innovations in areas such as advanced refrigeration, agricultural processing, electric cooking, brushless DC electric motors, interoperability, compatibility, and connectivity. LEIA leads the ‘Energy Efficiency’ Ayrton Challenge and co-leads the ‘Sustainable Cooling For All’ Ayrton Challenge, along with supporting on the ‘Modern Cooking’ Ayrton Challenge. The programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) via the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform.

Enabling African Cities for Transformative Energy Access (ENACT)
africa.iclei.org/project iclei-africa@iclei.org
Summary

ENACT is part of the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform and is creating an enabling environment for implementation of market-led energy access solutions for people in urban informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa through public-private partnerships. It is doing this through:
– Public sector capacity building in urban energy data collection and planning;
– Designing, piloting and testing energy access implementation models led by the private sector; and
– Knowledge dissemination for scale-up and replication in urban areas across sub-Saharan Africa.

Clean Energy Access for Remote Pacific Island Countries – CLEARPICs
https://www.spc.int/ spc@spc.int
Summary

In Countries and Territories (PICTs) in the indo-Pacific access to electricity has increased from 31% of households on average in 2010 to 55% in 2018. Three of the largest and most populous PICTs, however, have the poorest electrification rates (by household) – Papua New Guinea (PNG) (47%), Solomon Islands (57%), and Vanuatu (64%). A mixed energy approach that continues to support the increasing demand for access to energy with the inclusion of some of the most remote and rural communities across the Pacific is critical towards achieving SDG7 and a shift away from fossil fuels to meet the countries Nationally Determined Contributions. Universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services is articulated in SDG 7, hence supporting remote and island-based communities to access energy and catalysing business opportunities will be transformative.

Existing hurdles and risks are high for private companies doing mini-grid projects in the PICTs. The remote nature of the islands and harsh marine environment poses challenges of accessibility and lack of economies of scale. Such unfavourable conditions result in a high cost and risk which prevents private companies from engaging. As a result, there has been a vacuum of responsibility for the sustainable operation of mini-grid projects, which in turn results in unsatisfactory performance and unfulfilled socio-economic benefits of mini-grid projects.

This new project is to support energy access across PICTs through research into technology applicability, scale and governance within case study countries by undertaking geographically specific research into opportunities for off-grid energy deployment within PICTs countries. The project includes five work packages with some delivered across all PICTs whereas others will be undertaken on a selection. The three PICTs that have the poorest electrification rates (PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) will be covered by specific tailored activities along with other PICTs that have made more energy access progress to help further progress pioneer markets and act as a reference case, such as Fiji.

Accelerate to Demonstrate (A2D) Facility
devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects AyrtonFund@beis.gov.uk
Summary

The Accelerate-to-Demonstrate (A2D) facility is part of the wider Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF) funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) , and also aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries with a focus on critical minerals, clean hydrogen and cross-cutting themes such smart energy and industrial decarbonisation.

The International Energy Storage Challenge
faraday.ac.uk/research https://www.faraday.ac.uk/contact-us/
Summary

The International Energy Storage Challenge, led by the Faraday Institution, accelerates the delivery of disruptive battery technologies to provide reliable and sustainable energy in developing and emerging economies with on-grid, significant off-grid, and weak grid populations. This is delivered through a research and development programme to reduce the cost and improve the performance of battery energy storage systems (BESS) technologies for use in developing country contexts. This Challenge is led by the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform

Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF)
devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects AyrtonFund@beis.gov.uk
Summary

Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF) is a programme funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) that aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries in key themes. The existing CEIF 1.0 programme under the platform focuses on industrial decarbonisation, sustainable cooling, smart energy, and energy storage.

Climate Compatible Growth
www.climatecompatiblegrowth.com ccg@lboro.ac.uk
Summary

Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) is a research platform funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) which is helping countries in the Global South to take a path of low carbon development while simultaneously unlocking profitable investment in green infrastructure. The platform is also helping to open up new markets and supporting delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CCG develops evidence and global public goods to help countries develop and implement economic strategies, plans, and policies to attract investment into low-carbon growth opportunities across multiple sectors. Much of its work is currently focused on grid-scale energy and clean transport. CCG builds partnerships in key countries (including Zambia, Kenya, India, Lao, Vietnam and Ghana), supporting them with a consortium of world-class UK and international researchers to build the evidence, tools and decision support frameworks needed to leverage a shift to clean investments.