Improving energy access and climate resilience in Africa’s fringe communities

ongoing

We will establish a Renewable Energy Park (REEP) in a rural community fringing the Mole National Park in Ghana to demonstrate energy access and climate resilience using the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus approach. We will replicate a plug-and-play microgrid developed under the ongoing Horizon project “RePower”, using solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage system (BESS) and biomass combined heat and power (BCHP). To increase energy demand of the community, we will develop technologies and activities for the productive use of energy (PUE) using a circular economy approach, whereby waste generated from agriculture and food processing serves as feedstock for the BCHP plant and cookstoves. An estimated 900 million Africans have no access to clean cooking and over one million deaths occur annually from use of firewood and kerosene involving mainly women and children. We will test and promote the use of improved cookstoves (ICS) that can be easily integrated into the current traditional cooking system. This will help to arrest intrusion into the protected wildlife park for fuelwood which has led to widespread deforestation and loss of biodiversity. We will use life cycle approaches to measure the social, ecoconomic and environmental impacts of the project and cooperate with other LEAP-RE and CCSE projects to facilitate the adoption of the results across Africa. We will identify and catalogue sources of funding including public and private investors and international private and donor funding. Attention will also be given to building local value chains for materials supplies and a skilled workforce for the operation and maintenance of the microgrid and PUE components. The REEP will be fully operational by the end of the project period and is expected to become financially self-sustainable within 5 years. Our business model will be based on a public-private partnership and include other sources of financing such as sale of carbon credits.