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Livelihood / Living

Establishing connections between e-mobility innovation and Indigenous knowledge: Insights from Kenya

28/06/2025
Geoffrey Gitau
Article

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into E-mobility technology development not only enables climate change mitigation, but also leverages the untapped potential of Kenya’s youth.

Designing for impact: How life cycle assessment drives sustainable refrigeration

25/06/2025
Sarah Hambly, Jakub Vrba, Stuart Walker, and Victor Torres
Article

World Refrigeration Day (26 June) is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the role of refrigeration in ensuring inclusive and sustainable development across the globe, and on the expertise required to design systems that are both effective and environmentally friendly.

News

Gender and energy: a two-way relationship between access and equality

21/06/2025
The Observer
News

The relationship between gender and energy access is mutually reinforcing: access to clean energy promotes gender equality, while gender equality enhances the effectiveness and sustainability of energy systems. Addressing both simultaneously enables a future in which women play a central role in shaping the energy systems of tomorrow.

Interventions that break silos: the Next Generation of Productive Use Beyond Lightbulbs

18/06/2025
Kumbirai Makanza
Article

In the early days of the global energy access movement, success was often measured by the number of lightbulbs turned on or households connected to mini-grids. There was a widespread expectation that expanding access to electricity would naturally catalyse economic development.

Are rural energy access programs pro-poor? Some are, many are not

09/06/2025
Jörg Ankel-Peters, Gunther Bensch, Alexandra Köngeter, Mascha Rauschenbach, Maximiliane Sievert
Article

This perspective article discusses whether energy access programs in rural Sub-Saharan Africa reach the poor in a way that most policy actors claim. We examine on- and off-grid electrification as well as improved cooking.

Solar irrigation: A game changer for climate-burdened rural communities

04/06/2025
Isaiah Esipisu
Article

Solar irrigation has become a reliable, relatively low-cost, clean-energy solution for agricultural water management in areas with high incident solar radiation.

Scaling Solar Irrigation Through Living Labs: A Story of Evidence, Innovation, and Collaboration

02/06/2025
Amare Haileslasie, Principal Researcher
Article

What happens when farmers, financiers, innovators, and policymakers are brought together in one room? A recent multi-stakeholder dialogue held in Hawassa, Ethiopia on scaling solar-powered irrigation offered an answer.

News

The power of islands: offshore Africa enters a new energy era

31/05/2025
African Business
News

Burning diesel or HFO has long been the only viable option for isolated islands where the smallness of the market makes the upfront cost of more modern methods of power generation commercially unviable. Yet a growing range of renewable energy technologies are providing new options for Africa’s islands.

Nigerian and Kenyan farmers can be first step to making rural mini grids more profitable and affordable

30/05/2025
Temilade Sesan, University of Ibadan and Lucy H. Baker, The Open University
Article

In Nigeria and Kenya, many small to medium farms and rural grain-milling businesses are not connected to the national electricity grid. They still use petrol or diesel generators for power.