One of the key activities of Green People’s Energy in Ethiopia is the support of the nation-wide roll-out of mini-grids. The project does so by developing a cooperative-based ownership- and management model for these systems. This model foresees a tight collaboration between cooperatives, private sector and public sector in order to realize decentralized, affordable renewable energy access in rural areas.
As part of this activity, Green People’s Energy in collaboration with its main partner, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Water and Energy, organised in April 2022 a working session that focused this time on the financials.
Building the mini grids requires a lot of capital investment. To help bridging the financing gap, a concept was presented and discussed with key representatives from the energy sector, cooperatives sector and development financing institutions. After extensive group discussions, the feedback and points of improvement were incorporated in the financing concept development.
This workshop was an important step towards the finalization of a whole package of guidelines for cooperative-driven mini-grid development in Ethiopia. And the session once again reflected a shared understanding of the strong role that cooperatives can and should play in the electrification of the country.
We will keep you posted about the next steps!
