Deadline: 28 February 2019

The Carbon Trust and Energy 4 Impact on behalf of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) are seeking Expressions of Interest for a program entitled “Powering Opportunities Partnership (POP) – Productive Energy Use (PEU) Action Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

The Powering Opportunities Partnerships (POP) is one of the constituent projects of TEA’s Supporting Clean Energy Partnerships programme. POP aims to demonstrate how the off-grid energy sector can stimulate local jobs and create local economic value in Sub-Saharan Africa, via a challenge fund supporting proposals that demonstrate innovation, partnerships and the potential for scalability and impact.

Type of Projects

• The POP PEU call requires the applicant to propose an action research and learning project in sub-Saharan Africa, for Off-Grid Productive Energy Use (PEU). The project should offer a theory of change towards improved economics, increased local employment and greater local value-capture through the creation of new or improved local productive energy use opportunities in rural off-grid areas, that are served by off-grid electricity supply sources.
• Projects proposed should actively involve businesses for whom the availability of off-grid electricity is an enabler for the expansion of their activities for example through:
  • Local value addition in their existing operations and value chains;
  • Entry into new rural value chains, including through the digital economy, that is otherwise constrained by a lack of access to electricity;
  • Other business enabling / electricity-demand stimulating activities that may be created.

Funding Information

• Under the POP PEU Competition, a total budget of at least £675,000 has been made available in this round for grants to successful applications.
• This Competition seeks to fund 3 to 4 projects.Funding to be requested from TEA-POP for each project should not exceed£300,000.

Geographic Scope

The countries in scope for intervention can be located in any Sub-Saharan African country, excluding South Africa.

Criteria

PEU is especially looking for projects involving organisations with a stake in developing rural economies as integral parts of their value chains and business models. Novel partnerships between such companies, together with off-grid energy suppliers, equipment and appliance suppliers,and other stakeholders in rural economies are encouraged. So too are innovative business models, project delivery models and technologies.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit their expressions of interest in PDF format at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://www.carbontrust.com/tea/news/2018/12/tea-pop-peu/