Power Africa goes off-grid in Addis Ababa

At the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial in Ethiopia, the U.S. Department of Energy boosted its involvement in Power Africa with a $1 billion partnership framework for off-grid projects. Will it be enough to satisfy renewable energy advocates?

By Michael Igoe // 04 June 2014

The U.S. Department of Energy Tuesday announced a new framework for investment — “Beyond the Grid” — a partnership with 27 “investors and practitioners” who commit to direct $1 billion towards off-grid and small scale energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa, in support of President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative. The announcement could help assuage some environmentalists’ and pro-poor advocates’ fears that Power Africa investments lean too heavily on conventional and grid-connected energy projects and threaten to increase carbon emissions while neglecting rural communities that are often the most impoverished and underserved. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the new framework Tuesday at the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial co-hosted by the governments of Ethiopia and the United States in Addis Ababa. U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah, African Development Bank Director Alex Rugamba, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director Gayle Smith and other notable public figures are participating in sessions that span topics related to access to energy for women, governance and natural gas utilization, among others. “With close to 600 million people without access to modern-day electricity, it is clear that centralized grid access is not a comprehensive solution for these countries in one of the world’s least urban continents. But through solutions including off-grid and small scale energy projects, we can bring electricity to these rural areas,” Secretary Moniz said in a statement. Overseas Private Investment Corp. President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield presented Wednesday a set of guidelines for power purchase agreements, intended to make them more “bankable” in the eyes of potential investors. A multi-agency effort to produce those guidelines — which Devex detailed in March — arrived at a set of “key elements for attracting financing to energy projects,” according to a statement from OPIC. “Bankable power purchase agreements are key to unlocking private and public sector capital needed to build generation capacity across the continent — which is the goal of Power Africa,” said Littlefield in a statement released ahead of her address at the ministerial. Read more on U.S. aid reform online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.

The U.S. Department of Energy Tuesday announced a new framework for investment — “Beyond the Grid” — a partnership with 27 “investors and practitioners” who commit to direct $1 billion towards off-grid and small scale energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa, in support of President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative.

The announcement could help assuage some environmentalists’ and pro-poor advocates’ fears that Power Africa investments lean too heavily on conventional and grid-connected energy projects and threaten to increase carbon emissions while neglecting rural communities that are often the most impoverished and underserved.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the new framework Tuesday at the U.S.-Africa Energy Ministerial co-hosted by the governments of Ethiopia and the United States in Addis Ababa. U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah, African Development Bank Director Alex Rugamba, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director Gayle Smith and other notable public figures are participating in sessions that span topics related to access to energy for women, governance and natural gas utilization, among others.

About the author

Michael Igoe @AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.

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