Project Alpha - Innovative Fully Costed Derisking Strategy for Renewable Energy into Sub-Saharan Africa

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The project will deliver a step change and innovative improvement to how sustainable energy is produced and delivered in Sub Saharan Africa. It specifically regards the use of waste and biomass as a source of energy for industrial and domestic users with wide ranging carbon and social impacts. Current sustainable energy projects in the territory that deliver impactful sustainability and social results are challenging to fund and deploy because of the lack of sufficient de-risking of key project drivers. These barriers to entry include aspects such as security of quality feedstock supply, local regulatory approvals, and bankable offtake agreements combined with appropriate technology choice. Additionally, social impact and the energy trilemma are often overlooked in such project ventures. This project will deliver industrial research that is the critical enabler to commercial deployment and builds on detailed feasibility work already completed by KEW. The project output will derisk the investment decisions to deliver cheap, secure innovative renewable energy, which will improve industrial performance & waste management infrastructure whilst delivering a significant step-change improvement in the health & welfare of the local population, particularly amongst the female population, by replacing wood with clean, sustainable domestic fuel.Overall, the deployment of KEW modules in Kenya, critically de-risked through the InnovateUK funded Project Alpha, tackles two major issues through enabling greater value to be ascribed to waste and providing sustainable, affordable energy. Firstly, informal waste picking and the associated social & health hazards would be replaced by properly-paid safe work. This is a very significant opportunity to develop and introduce a working integrated waste management system into an area where the waste management is a massive social, economic, and environmental issue. Secondly, the industry can be supplied with reliable electricity and heat at lower costs (and much lower carbon footprint) than existing sources (much of which rely on importing fuel oil) as well as cooking gas, utilising clean-burn DME fuel produced using KEW's and strategic partners, can be provided to local people to replace charcoal/wood and reduce deforestation and respiratory disease (especially if not using a burn stove).