The Powering Healthcare programme aims to provide the solutions needed by governments and their partners to increase investment in health facility electrification efforts in developing countries. Powering Healthcare is led by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) and supported by the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform. The programme seeks to break down the sector-wide, systemic barriers that impede wide-scale deployment of quality energy solutions for health centres and clinics in developing countries. Powering Healthcare will generate better sector intelligence, drive the uptake of data, technology and financial innovation, and amplify the global advocacy efforts to raise ambition and strengthen cooperation and knowledge exchange among health and energy actors.
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Health service delivery in Sierra Leone remains hampered by a lack of reliable electricity access in health facilities. This impacts health facilities at all levels, with several key hospitals still unconnected to the national grid. Those hospitals that are connected to a grid continue to suffer from frequent power outages. With support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), SEforALL developed a ‘Market Assessment & Roadmap’ for the sustainable electrification of social infrastructure, most notable in the health and education sector. Building on the results of this assessment, SEforALL with co-funding from the FCDO is supporting a new health electrification project that will electrify unelectrified or under-electrified hospitals in Sierra Leone, which is expected to enable improved delivery of health services – particularly but not limited to maternal and child health services.
Programme designed to improve access to affordable clean energy among Pacific Island Countries. It includes an initial UK investment of £3.5m to deliver renewable energy to the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea in partnership with Australia. This programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Global Innovation Fund invests in innovations with the greatest potential for social impact, regardless of sector or geography, and that benefit people living on less than $5/day in developing countries, including some innovations in the clean energy sector. This programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
SUNRISE is an international project that seeks to address global energy poverty through the research and development of next-generation solar technologies. The project is currently demonstrating the effectiveness of these technologies through a series of demonstrators in rural India. It is led by the Swansea University and unites several leading universities and industrial collaborators from the UK and Global South in a transdisciplinary research collaboration. It is supported by the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform.
The Zero Emissions Generator Accelerator (ZE-Gen) was launched at COP27 in November 2022. It aims to enable the replacement of millions of polluting and expensive fossil-fuelled generators by accelerating the transition to renewable energy-based alternatives. ZE-Gen will focus on innovation, finance and investment, market intelligence, and ecosystem building to bring stakeholders together from across relevant sectors to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuelled generators. ZE-Gen is led by the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform.
Transforming Energy Access (TEA) is the flagship Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) research and innovation platform supporting early-stage testing and scale-up of innovative technologies and business models that accelerate access to affordable, clean and modern energy, enabling sustainable, and inclusive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region. This includes clean energy supply technologies (e.g. next generation solar), super-efficient demand solutions (e.g. efficient appliances, sustainable cooling, modern cooking) and smart delivery solutions (e.g. energy storage, green grids, hydrogen). It targets people and enterprises who have no or limited access to clean, modern energy services and limited opportunities to participate in, or benefit from, the energy sector through employment and income generation opportunities. TEA leads on several Ayrton Challenges including ‘Next Generation Solar’, ‘Zero Emissions Generators’, ‘Energy Storage’, ‘Clean Hydrogen’, ‘Inclusive Energy and Leave No One Behind’, ‘Sustainable Cooling for All’ and ‘Energy Efficiency’ (via the LEIA programme), and supports ‘Clean Transport’ and ‘Smart Energy Systems’.
Regional programme including a Challenge Fund supporting start-ups or expansion of household solar energy businesses in nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and supporting the deployment of mini grids through the African Development Bank. This programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). This programme is now closed, but contact Matthew Rees in FCDO Africa Directorate if you have any questions.
A Multi Donor innovation challenge fund that focuses on innovations in humanitarian contexts caused by conflict. This includes research and development into adaptation and adoption of new clean energy technologies such as sustainable energy solutions though solar mini-grids, clean cooking, solar powered health services, and innovative financing mechanisms, in countries affected by conflict or displacement. This programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Announced at COP26 in Glasgow, this regional programme supports the World Bank’s Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SMRI) to demonstrate renewable energy technologies with storage at scale, and the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) to support clean generation capacity by pairing battery storage alongside solar, wind, and other technologies, and support smart grid systems and clean cooking. This programme is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).