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

该项目将为撒哈拉以南非洲地区可持续能源的生产和输送方式带来重大变革和创新改进。它特别将废物和生物质的使用作为工业和家庭用户的能源来源，具有广泛的碳和社会影响。由于缺乏足够的关键项目驱动因素去风险，该地区目前的可持续能源项目在提供有影响力的可持续性和社会效益方面面临着融资和部署的挑战。这些进入壁垒包括优质原料供应的安全性、当地监管机构的批准、可融资的承购协议以及适当的技术选择等方面。此外，在此类项目投资中，社会影响和能源三难困境往往被忽视。该项目将提供工业研究，这是商业部署的关键推动因素，并以KEW已经完成的详细可行性工作为基础。该项目的产出将使投资决策面临风险，以提供廉价、安全的创新可再生能源，这将改善工业绩效和废物管理基础设施，同时通过用清洁、可持续的国内燃料取代木材，显著改善当地人口，特别是女性人口的健康和福利。总的来说，KEW模块在肯尼亚的部署，通过InnovateUK资助的Alpha项目极大地降低了风险，通过实现废物的更大价值和提供可持续的、负担得起的能源，解决了两个主要问题。首先，非正式的废物收集和相关的社会和健康危害将被有适当报酬的安全工作所取代。这是一个非常重要的机会，在一个废物管理是一个巨大的社会、经济和环境问题的地区，开发和引入一个有效的综合废物管理系统。其次，该行业可以以更低的成本（和更低的碳足迹）提供可靠的电力和热量，而不是现有的来源（大部分依赖于进口燃料油），以及烹饪用煤气，利用KEW和战略合作伙伴生产的清洁燃烧二甲醚燃料，可以提供给当地人民，以取代木炭/木材，减少森林砍伐和呼吸疾病（特别是如果不使用燃烧炉）。

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).