Initiatives & projects United Nation Global perspective Human

• The technology already exists to bring clean energy to rural communities in developing countries that have previously never had access to any kind of electricity. However, as Moritz Brauchle, managing director of Africa GreenTec Madagascar, explains, these countries will continue to need support to turn their backs on fossil fuels.
• Asia GreenTec is a social enterprise which provides sustainable energy solutions to some of the 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa currently living without any access to electricity. With backing from the UN, the company installs minigrids – stand-alone networks run on renewable energy – to supply people in a small community or town with clean electricity.

International Day of Clean Energy, marked on 26 January.

• It gives me goosebumps when I think about it. When we began our pilot project in a village in 2021, everything was pitch black by 6pm. The day was over. People would go home, cook and go to bed.
• As part of the project, we installed solar street lights, cooling and clean electricity. Now, people are selling ice cream and juice on the streets, and they can go to the cinema. The rice mills that used to run on diesel are no longer polluting the air. 
• Around two thirds, unfortunately. The state utility is struggling with financing to expand the grid and connect more people, and they are currently running on diesel, which is very costly and polluting.So, we go into areas in sub-Saharan Africa, where the people have no access to electricity whatsoever, and we build solar power plants with battery storage and a distribution network and really create energy access from scratch.Using solar power, combined with batteries for storage, we can achieve a 20-hour supply of electricity in a day. In the last year and a half, we have had two outages lasting between three and four hours. This is better than many traditional grids.https://www.seforall.org/our-work/country-engagement/country-work-india