World Bank offers $4.6m credit for off-grid solar panels and cook stoves in Kenya pv magazine International
Some 19 off-grid photo voltaic firms working in Kenya have been provided entry to KES500 million ($4.6 million) of credit score as a part of the $150 million Kenya Off-grid Solar Access Program (KOSAP) financed by the World Bank.
With the KOSAP initiative aiming to carry solar energy to 250,00zero off-grid Kenyan households and companies by 2023 with a KES4.7 billion finance package deal, the preliminary KES500 million shall be provided to personal solar home system and clear cooking range suppliers to allow them to purchase inventory and arrange distribution networks within the 14 Kenyan counties focused by the KOSAP scheme.
The funding spherical, which can embody short-term loans and results-based financing’, will supply credit score to 10 non-public firms which distribute particular person photo voltaic dwelling system panels throughout the 14 counties. Eligible suppliers embody Ms Solibrium Ltd, the Ms Greenlight Planet Kenya operation of Chicago-based Greenlight, Ms Photo voltaic Built-in Home equipment Ltd, and the Ms Azuri Applied sciences Ltd arm of Cambridge, U.Okay.-based Azuri. To qualify for the credit score, the businesses should supply mounted and transportable methods which may energy no less than two mounted lights, a conveyable mild, telephone charging, and radio operation.
9 clear cookstove firms together with Ms Rafadone Renewable Power Ltd and New York-based Ms Biolite Holdings Ltd alongside Photo voltaic Built-in Home equipment which function throughout eight of the 14 KOSAP counties, can even have entry to the borrowing facility, to produce no less than Tier 2 merchandise as outlined by ISO IWA requirements.
The KOSAP program administered by Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, public physique the Rural Electrification and Renewable Power Corp and state utility Kenya Power and Lighting (KPLC) goals to distribute 250,00zero photo voltaic dwelling methods and 150,00zero clear cooking stoves within the off-grid counties as a part of Nairobi’s push for universal electricity access by 2022 and clear cooking services by 2028. The credit score traces are being managed by Dutch improvement lender SNV Netherlands Growth Group and San Francisco-based non-public impression investor Sunfunder Inc.
The broader KOSAP initiative additionally goals to ascertain group mini-grids and solar water pumps within the 14 counties and can open up an additional three extra finance rounds for a complete of KES1.2 billion of results-based finance and KES3 billion of short-term borrowing, structured in such a means as to allow non-public distributors to supply reasonably priced compensation plans to clients.
Kenya was just lately highlighted as one in every of three African nations main the way in which within the effort to drive renewables adoption through the Covid-19 disaster. Nonetheless, the COVID-19 vitality sector response in Africa: A assessment of preliminary authorities interventions report by the Pan African College, additionally criticized an inclination amongst African governments to depend on donor help to deploy clear vitality, as within the KOSAP program.
Source : blackchronicle
