Jerusalem, June 5, 2014 — US Energy secretary Ernest Moniz announced yesterday in Addis Ababa that Energiya Global Capital is the only Israeli company to join the founding members of Power Africa’s Initiative Beyond the Grid.
Two out of three sub-Saharan Africans — 600 million people — lack access to electricity, forcing them to spend significant amounts of their income on costly and unhealthy forms of energy. Today, the U.S. Government is formally launching an innovative framework under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative to increase energy access for underserved populations across sub-Saharan Africa. Over an initial five-year period, Beyond the Grid will leverage partnerships with 27 investors and practitioners, including Energiya Global Capital, committing to invest over $1 billion into off-grid and small scale solutions for this underserved market. These private sector commitments will help Power Africa meet and exceed its commitment to provide access to 20 million new connections for households and commercial entities, providing electricity to millions of households in sub-Saharan Africa.
By partnering with investors, practitioners, and donors, Beyond the Grid will mobilize new resources, technologies, and expertise to address access to electricity issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Off-grid and small-scale energy solutions that generate electricity closer to end users will also bolster productive uses of energy and income generation.
“Beyond the Grid will help to expand the work the U.S. Government is already doing through Power Africa to bring electricity to citizens of sub-Saharan Africa,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “With close to 600 million people without access to modern-day electricity, it is clear that centralized grid access is not a comprehensive solution for these countries in one of the world’s least urban continents. But through solutions including off-grid and small scale energy projects, we can bring electricity to these rural areas.”
The Power Africa Initiative aims to double the number of people with access to power in Sub-Saharan Africa. Power Africa will achieve this goal by unlocking the substantial wind, solar, hydropower, natural gas, and geothermal resources in the region to enhance energy security, decrease poverty, and advance economic growth. By expanding mini-grid and off-grid solutions and building out power generation, transmission, and distribution structures, Power Africa will make electricity access available for 20 million people and commercial entities.
Energiya Global, as part of its commitment to Power Africa under Beyond the Grid, is working to expand off-grid projects in the six focus countries. As well, Energiya aims to expand activities to additional Power Africa countries – building a network of up to 25 10 MW projects throughout Africa, and making our services available to 10 million Africans. Energiya is also working to expand globally into other developing countries, including in South America and the Middle East. Energiya is already working with Power Africa on its larger-scale project in Rwanda. By working with the Beyond the Grid initiative, Energiya hopes to increase accessibility to electricity in rural areas.
“Energiya Global is proud to be a partner with Power Africa and Beyond the Grid,” said Yosef Abramowitz, CEO of Energiya. “We are uniquely positioned to leverage world-leading Israeli know-how and technology to bring much-needed energy to the people of Africa, and in a way that benefits investors and humanity.”
Energiya Global develops affordable solar projects worldwide, with the goal of providing clean electricity for 50 million people by 2020.
