African SCENe: Sustainable Community Energy Networks

4c03278d-2b1a-402d-9360-1700f3905048

Active

Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£1,269,840

March 31, 2023

March 31, 2024

African SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks) is a 12-month feasibility study that will enable the characterisation and identification of schools within low-income suburban communities in Nairobi that have the potential to become clean energy hubs through innovative business models.

These energy hubs will be capable of generating, storing and distributing clean energy for the community they serve, accelerating access to adequate, affordable, and reliable renewable energy in Kenya, whilst enhancing energy awareness and education, The proposed business models will remove the financial and technical burden from the schools, in line with learnings from past projects developed by the partners. Given challenges around grid reliability and supply, African SCENe will investigate how the business model could be defined to co-exist within the existing and future energy structures. Key to the proposition is the social benefits that can arise from increasing access to studying and cooking facilities that are powered by clean, safe and reliable electricity.

SmartKlub's role is to develop the business model to enable the realisation of the energy hubs, with funded facilities being managed under a lease contract with the school. Edu-Cater Global will take the lead on utilising facilities to inform and enhance pupils and families' learning experience and awareness of clean energy subjects. They will use subcontractor Map Kibera to identify and access appropriate schools to work with and that can be proposed as future demonstrators. University of Nottingham's role is to develop the social, economic, policy and technical researches needed to support the project. FWD.London will ensure deliverability, replicability and scalability across sub-Saharan Africa, by utilising and growing existing supply chains where feasible or developing them from UK businesses. It aims to facilitate the adoption of sustainable business practices across Africa, helping to mitigate the adverse effect human development has on both the environment, and climate. They also seek to ensure that local communities benefit from the vast natural resources available to them. These benefits are unlocked through a combination of; skills training programmes, knowledge transfer initiatives and capital investment.

The project team will be supported by an advisory board that includes Kenyan Power, the Institute of Energy Studies Research Kenya, the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group and the Kenya Renewable Energy Association.

We are actively seeking to form partnerships across the region to achieve these aims and goals.