Technology

Supporting the breakthrough clean energy technologies and business models needed to alleviate energy poverty in Africa and South Asia

Despite significant progress in recent years, particularly on access to electricity, the world is not on track to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. More than 2.6 billion people worldwide remain without access to clean cooking. Without sustained efforts, 620 million people will still be left without access to electricity in 2030 and 85% of them will be in sub-Saharan Africa according to The Energy Progress Report.

Technology and business model innovation is essential to accelerating the progress needed to end energy poverty in Africa and South Asia. Support for these innovations is core to the TEA programme. Energy access technologies and business models supported range from clean energy generation and storage innovations through to productive use of energy and business models that overcome barriers to adoption. Almost 350 innovative energy access technologies and business models are being prototyped, demonstrated or tested with UK aid support via TEA. Research and dissemination to identify what works and share lessons learnt is key to this support so that it not only benefits the companies and their customers, but also other governments, investors and the next generation of innovators needed to accelerate progress in addressing energy access challenges.

The stories profiled here share examples of the breakthrough technology and business model innovations that TEA is enabling.