DEEP - Developing Energy Enterprises Project (East Africa)
Standardisation and Certification of Energy Products - The Experiences of DEEP EA Project
GVEP’S experience with working with women entrepreneurs in East Africa
Marketing Challenges and Strategies for Micro & Small Energy Enterprises in East Africa
ESME - Supporting Energy Small & Medium Enterprises
An analysis of the off-grid lighting market in Rwanda: sales, distribution and marketing
Assessment of the pico and micro-hydropower market in Rwanda
Other publications
East African Cookstove Market Assessments (Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves)
Cookstoves and Markets: Experiences, Successes and Opportunities
Started in 2008, our Developing Energy Enterprises Project (DEEP) has ended in February 2013. Over the past five years, the programme has supported the growth of small energy businesses in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. About a thousand of entrepreneurs have benefited from our technical and business support enabling them to scale their activities.
These entrepreneurs work at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) in rural and periurban areas. The products and services they offer have contributed to provide an improved access to clean energy solutions for low-income customers in these communities.
The booklet Developing Energy Enterprises in East Africa compiles case studies presenting some of the best performing DEEP entrepreneurs as well as some of their customers. The booklet showcases the main renewable energy technologies used by DEEP entrepreneurs (improved cookstoves, briquettes and solar). We share the lessons learnt from DEEP as well as business plan and entrepreneurial tips. You’ll also find more information about our other energy access programmes.
Download the DEEP booklet (PDF version) or the interactive DEEP booklet.
One of the challenges faced by companies selling small solar PV lighting products or advanced cook stoves in Africa is the lack of enforced standards. Competition from poor quality and cheaper products makes the going tough.In the Developing Energy Enterprises Programme, we worked with a small number of briquette makers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to help them apply for the national standards mark for their product.
Download this presentation (PDF version) produced by our partner IT POWER, which presents the overview, strategy, approach, results so far, challenges and lessons learnt from the work carried out with these DEEP entrepreneurs related to standardisation and certification of their energy products.
Read full article on the GVEP blog here.
GVEP has been working on implementing loan guarantees to promote access to micro-finance to energy products across East Africa, and has implemented nine loan guarantee agreements with five financial institutions in Uganda across the spectrum of financial institution type. This report explains the approach that GVEP has used to implement these loan guarantees, and highlights the challenges that GVEP has experienced, on both the client (end-users and entrepreneurs seeking loans) and the financial institution sides. This report also outlines some strategies that GVEP has employed to overcome these challenges, allowing the micro-finance sector in Uganda to gain from lessons learned and best practices of lending at a micro-scale, specifically in relation to energy.
Authors: Micah Melnyk and Juliet Gibbs
This toolkit has been designed as a resource document for the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to implement clean energy projects at the household level in conservation areas in Kenya and Tanzania. The toolkit will guide the user through the steps of designing and implementing an energy programme and provides information on the following topics: prerequisites when considering the suitability of energy technologies; necessary steps required to introduce a particular energy technology; market and socio-economic feasibility of energy technologies; potential financing options for energy technologies and implementation process for energy projects.
This toolkit is a follow on from the learning report documenting the findings from a review of household clean energy technology for lighting, charging and cooking in Kenya and Tanzania conducted by GVEP International on behalf of AWF and JGI. Further information regarding the different types of energy technologies available in Kenya and Tanzania, the main suppliers of energy technologies and challenges and lessons learnt from energy programmes can be found in this report
In addition to AWF & JGI staff, the toolkit can be used to inform the larger conservation community and donors who are considering implementing projects in the household energy sector.
Authors: Laura Clough, Kavita Rai et al
Download the toolkit (35 pages), the learning report (106 pages) and the executive summary (4 pages)
The task of cooking is an essential part of life for people around the globe, yet in East Africa it is a task that can consume many hours of the day and have far reaching consequences on health and the environment as well as social and economic impacts. Improved cookstoves have been promoted in East Africa for many years and can help to reduce household fuel consumption, time spent on fuel wood collection and exposure to harmful emissions.
This report aims to analyse and document GVEP International’s experience working with improved cookstove businesses in East Africa through its Developing Energy Enterprise Programme (DEEP). It describes the context of improved cookstoves in East Africa and provides an overview of the cookstove markets in each of the three countries before going on to describe how the DEEP programme has supported cookstove enterprises and the challenges and lessons learnt from the programme. In addition it examines results from stove testing done on cookstoves produced under the DEEP programme. Based on this experience the report finally goes on to present a strategy for GVEP International to take its cookstove work forward in the future.
Author: Laura Clough
Download the report on the improved cookstove sector in East Africa.
This market assessment provides an overview of the off-grid lighting market in Rwanda at the end of 2011. Ten active companies in supplying low-cost lighting solutions were interviewed on their products and sales data, their distribution channels and marketing activities as part of a baseline assessment of the off-grid lighting market in Rwanda.
This report summarises the findings of this research and provides an overview of the current status of the market, the key players and their products. It also gives insights in product availability and affordability with a focus on off-the-shelf lighting products.
The report also describes the kinds of products currently available in Rwanda, the segmentation of the market between smaller and larger products and the geography of sales.
Authors: David Disch and Jasmien Bronckaers.
Download the report.
GVEP International and Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) have conducted market assessments across East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) on behalf of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), as part of a broader effort by the Alliance to enhance the sector market intelligence and knowledge. Further country assessments commissioned by GACC are also available through their website.
Biomass has historically been a cheap and accessible source of fuel for Uganda’s population, but the level of demand, coupled with unsustainable harvesting and poor management of forests, means that the country is approaching something of a biomass crisis. This provides a context in which the economics of briquette production become feasible and as more ventures are starting to appear, there is much scope for growth within an industry that is still in its infancy.
This report investigates the conditions in which micro and small-scale briquette producers in Uganda are operating and examines their potential for growth. It presents an overview of GVEP’s work with 139 briquette microenterprises including case studies and profiles of some of the most prominent briquette businesses and projects in the East Africa region.
Author: Hamish Ferguson
Download the Briquettes Businesses in Uganda.
Green Power for Mobile (GPM) published its bi-annual report, in partnership with the International Financial Corporation (IFC). The fifth edition summarises the developments within the programme and the sector. It focuses on key trends for success within Green Power for Mobile; innovation from the Indian subcontinent and Community Power from Mobile (CPM). This report features GVEP's study about phone charging micro-businesses in East Africa. Moreover, Community Power from Mobile wrote a case study about GVEP for its second White Paper "Harnessing The Full Potential of Mobile for Off-Grid Energy".
This report summarises findings of a market study that aimed to assess the potential commercial market for off-grid hydropower plants in Rwanda with a generation capacity of less than 50kW.
It focuses on the evaluation of demand, client requirements and purchasing power in order to inform a sector strategy.
Authors: Dr. Thomas Meier and Gerhard Fischer, Entec AG
Editors: David Disch and Rehema Kahurananga, GVEP
Download the report on the pico and micro-hydropower market in Rwanda.
This short paper draws on GVEP’s experience in working with women entrepreneurs in East Africa under the Developing Energy Enterprises Programme (DEEP). It provides an overview of the emerging outcomes and impacts of the interventions especially in relation to linking female entrepreneurs with finance.
Author: Phyllis Kariuki and Patrick Balla
Download the report on working with women entrepreneurs.
Mobile network operators in Africa identify rural customer’s problems with charging phones as a major challenge in expanding their businesses.
Recent studies suggest that the need to recharge phones is a significant driver of demand for rural electrification services. This study looks closely at a series of phone charging businesses in Uganda and Tanzania, in order to better understand the market dynamics and the potential for growth and possibly diversification into sales of solar lanterns and lighting systems.
The study also seeks to understand the impact that the GVEP’s programme has had on the development of these businesses.
Author: Simon Collings
Download the phone charging report.
This report summarises findings from a study undertaken by GVEP (Global Village Energy Partnership) under its Developing Energy Enterprise Project East Africa (DEEP EA) implemented in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It reviews the current marketing strategies being employed by energy micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and the marketing challenges they face. The study also looks in depth at how marketing theories are being applied on the ground for specific DEEP EA supported technologies and provides recommendations on how entrepreneurs can improve their marketing activities. The report is produced to create an increase in knowledge base for energy practitioners working with MSEs in Africa
Author: Laura Clough
Download the marketing report.
A consolidated report of three market studies conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to examine how GVEP-International could work with Financial Institutions (FIs) and Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) so as to increase the access for investment finance and stimulate demand for energy products. It is part of a USAID funded Energy Sector Grants Programme project.
Author: Phyllis Kariuki, Kavita Rai et al
Download the market survey study.
An in-depth study into the Kenya briquette industry to enhance the support the Developing Energy Enterprise Project is offering to start-up and existing briquette enterprises. The study investigated the success factors influencing briquette making.
Download the briquette industry study.
A new report from GVEP International that tackles the question of why the adoption of improved cook stoves has been so slow in developing countries. The report looks at the challenges associated with commercialising cookstove products and other reasons for market underdevelopment despite the enormous potential which improved cookstoves have as well as detailing several successes.
Download the cookstoves and markets report.
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