The TEA platform welcomes new partnerships set to accelerate a just transition by tackling energy access challenges. The first announcement is a partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) under the Clean Energy Access for Remote Pacific Island Countries (CLEARPICs) programme. The second announcement, Transforming Energy Access at SUNRISE builds on the pre-existing SUNRISE network, a collaboration led by Swansea University and countries in Africa, Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
Credit: SPC -PV installation Nanumea
Each initiative will be supported via the TEA scale-up announced by the UK Prime Minster, Rishi Sunak at COP28, which marked a further £40 million commitment to the TEA platform, to continue research and development efforts needed to enable an inclusive clean energy transition, including an extended geographical scope incorporating the Indo-Pacific region.
Clean Energy Access for Remote Pacific Island Countries (CLEARPICs)
Despite countries and territories in the Indo-Pacific region seeing an increase in households’ access to electricity from 31% in 2010 to 55% in 2018, three of the largest and most populous Pacific Island Countries (PICs) suffer from low electrification rates. Off-grid electricity infrastructure and technologies remain critical in ensuring these communities have access to electricity for schools, hospitals and other vital services in which renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) technology are widely used.
However, the installation and maintenance of these off-grid installations remains a challenge for many regions including Pacific Island Countries (PICs) leading to poor operational activity within a few years of installation. These challenges highlight a need for both better operational and financial management for remote, off-grid electrification as well as innovative financing mechanisms and business models to support access to energy in remote communities in PICTs.
The £1 million CLEARPICS programme will run for three years, until March 2027 and will support energy access across PICs through research into technology applicability, scale and governance within select countries, (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) by undertaking geographically specific research into opportunities for off-grid energy deployment within PICs countries. The programme includes five work packages with some delivered across all PICs whereas others will be undertaken on PICs with the poorest electrification rates. Initial analysis will be undertaken with deep dives into regional liaison, market Intelligence, mapping current solar market potential and creating an enabling environment are key priority areas for CLEARPICS and pioneer markets such as Fiji will support as a reference case.
Transforming Energy Access (TEA) at SUNRISE
A new collaboration led by Swansea University is seeking to support countries in Africa, Asia and the Indo-Pacific to increase the scale of local production of sustainable solar photovoltaics (PV).
Building on the pre-existing SUNRISE network, the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) at SUNRISE project is a collaboration between universities and businesses across the UK and select countries in Africa, Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
PV has become one of the fastest-growing energy technologies worldwide. However, silicon PV, which currently dominates the market, faces various limitations. The manufacturing process requires large initial investment and consumes substantial amounts of critical materials and energy. Deployment at scale also runs the risk of generating vast amounts of waste. The IEA predicts that 125GW of PV will be installed in Africa before 2030. With abundant solar energy and large local markets, TEA at SUNRISE will explore the capability of countries in Africa, Asia and the Indo-Pacific to establish manufacturing hubs for efficient, low-cost PV modules.
TEA at SUNRISE will build on the relationships established by SUNRISE, extending beyond Africa and India to identify the benefits next-generation solar can bring across Africa, Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. The next generation of solar materials also offers a unique opportunity to design for ease of re-use and re-manufacture from the outset. An essential aspect of this project will be ensuring technologies are designed for a circular economy to limit waste and use of critical materials.