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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
How to bring energy to underserved communities
11/10/2023
6 min read
Feature
A fundamental part of the energy transition should involve its justness: ensuring no one is left behind as the world shifts to renewable sources of energy. Nick Imudia, CEO at d.light, discusses how expanding energy access and decarbonisation are aligned, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the International Energy Agency, 600 million people across Africa still lack access to electricity. This equates to 43% of the total population of the continent. Although on a global level energy access has improved vastly in the last decade, these numbers show that providing everyone with access to safe, reliable and sustainable energy remains an enormous task.
Alongside this challenge is the ongoing battle to mitigate climate change by reducing global emissions. Widening access to clean, reliable electricity is critical to sustainable development in Africa and Southern Asia. A large proportion of people across the global south are living below the poverty line and are particularly vulnerable to global macroeconomic shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic affected not only these people, but also the distribution networks that served them and the production lines that preceded them.
For us, the solution to both these problems is clear: to deploy distributed household-scale solar solutions that are independent of the grid, and finance them as well as the related appliances. This off-grid distributed solar model is showing incredible scale and now reaches hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Continuing on this path will see energy access served to all people in need.