This Thursday EDP launches the second edition of the A2E Fund (Access to Energy), a program that supports renewable energy access projects in developing countries. In addition to the € 500,000 grant, the funding program will also cover a new region – Nigeria – which joins the countries already included in last year’s edition: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The decision to launch the second edition of this Fund reinforces EDP’s commitment to sustainability and the need to combat the poverty and electrical exclusion that still affects the lives of millions of people, especially in remote and underserved rural communities from developing countries.
“Today, more than 840 million people do not have access to electricity, which puts them in a serious situation of exclusion. Ensuring access to energy for the most remote and underserved communities by enabling the creation of sustainable ecosystems is therefore a necessary condition for breaking the cycle of poverty and contributing to the social and economic development of these regions,” recalls EDP’s CEO. For Antonio Mexia, “this second edition of the A2E Fund, which we launch today, is a reinforcement of the commitment made in 2018: to support renewable energy projects and sustainability solutions to benefit over 200,000 people in three years. The global energy transition has to include everyone’s access to energy, leaving no one behind.”
In this new edition – for non-profit and for-profit entities – the Fund will continue to provide financial support of between 25,000 and 100,000 euros for each project. Applications may be submitted by November 26; an evaluation and pre-selection phase will follow. The selected projects will be made known at the beginning of the year. The promoters will then have to execute the projects throughout the year.
With this relaunch, the program started in 2018 which received 108 applications and made available 450 thousand euros to support new projects in poor areas and populations continues. Projects selected by the A2E Fund can be found on this page.
As in the past year, the Fund focuses on five priority areas – education, health, agriculture, business and the community – and highlights assessment criteria such as social impact, partnerships, sustainability, potential for expansion or financial viability.
The A2E strategy, in addition to the fund, also involves an investment of 12 million euros until 2020 in the acquisition of companies with sustainable solutions for energy access. The first step was taken in October last year with the purchase of a stake in SolarWorks! – company operating in Mozambique that markets decentralized solar energy solutions. The choice of countries covered by the EDP fund is, moreover, related to the A2E strategy, which has given priority to investments in sub-Saharan Africa.
The rules and application form for the second edition of the A2E Fund can be found on the EDP website.