Lesotho Renewable Energy & Energy Access Project

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The development objective of Renewable Energy and Energy Access Project is to increase access to electricity in rural and peri-urban areas of Lesotho. This project has three components. 1) The first component, Grid Extension to Peri-Urban Areas of Lesotho, aims to finance the design, procurement of materials, and construction works required to electrify selected industrial and commercial loads in peri-urban areas of Lesotho, as well as provide connections to residential customers nearby. 2) The second component, Rural Electrification by Mini-grids, aims to support the electrification of areas where electricity supply through minigrids represents the least-cost option from a country perspective, as underpinned by the Electrification Master Plan (EMP) and geospatial analysis. It includes following two sub-components: (i) Rehabilitation and Upgrading of Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) Mini-grid at Semonkong; and (ii) Mini-grid Development under public-private partnership (PPP) Models. 3) The third component, Technical Assistance and Implementation Support, aims to play a critical role in upstream and downstream capacity building. It includes following three sub-components: (i) Project Implementation and Coordination Support; and (ii) Women’s Employment, Female Entrepreneurship, Consumer Education and Citizen Engagement, and Productive Uses of Energy. 4) The fourth component, Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC), aims to be used to partially cover emergency response through implementation of key activities by the appropriate agencies to respond to the emergency.