How open-source data can improve finance access for renewable energy projects
By the GET.invest and A2EI teams
In order to provide affordable energy for all while taking urgent action to combat climate change, renewable energy projects will have to ramp up rapidly on a global scale. Access to financing is still the main challenge for off-grid solar distributors and developers, especially in emerging economies.
The lack of comprehensive and user-friendly data on project performance poses one of the major obstacles to funding. Private investors and public donors alike will, rightfully, be hesitant to put their funds behind projects that cannot transparently disclose their track record and ongoing performance.
While a range of data management platforms exist, these solutions are mostly product-, project- or country-specific, or they are proprietary. To fill this gap, the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) and the European programme GET.invest, with the support of the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, have partnered to develop the data platform Prospect. The new platform provides the sector with a product-agnostic, global, and free-of-charge open-source data management system adhering to strict data privacy policies. It will be officially launched at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo 2022 in Kigali. Besides a launch session, a dedicated exhibition stand will present Prospect throughout the forum, where interested participants can discover and test its features.
Prospect aims to offer value to project managers and supranational institutions through a comprehensive and reality-based progress overview on access to energy initiatives. At the same time, it offers valuable insights to data providers – mostly SMEs – which will allow them to make data-driven business decisions in a complex environment. Additionally, it will act as a trust provider for financial and certification institutions who need validation for investment and certification processes. This will reduce transaction and monitoring costs and hence attract additional investment into the sector.
With Prospect, donors and private investors alike will be able to make well-informed initial financing decisions by easily accessing projects’ installation records, project performance and impact. Grant as well as equity/debt providers will be more comfortable extending additional funds if they know that they can trust the data verified by the A2EI, and can actually assess the effectiveness of their funding strategies. Donors can additionally use Prospect to streamline subsidy payments such as result-based financing (RBFs) schemes. Optimised analysis of impact enables RBF schemes to automatically disburse subsidies as soon as an agreed upon milestone is reached, making them easy to manage at scale.
Government stakeholders may find it convenient to present the success of their electrification strategy with externally verified data. Having comprehensive data of different projects available for the entire country also facilitates the optimisation of electrification strategies – which will in turn improve governments’ ability to make efficient use of donor funds and raise additional funding. A unique value proposition of Prospect for governments is the option to install an independent instance of Prospect within a country or even on-premise. This ensures compliance with an emerging data privacy and security framework across many Sub-Saharan African legislations.
Renewable energy distributors benefit from using the platform free-of-charge. They can show their installation record, impact, as well as a record of their financial performance. Projects that are able to provide granular and trusted data at the individual system and customer level, but also at the aggregate level, find it easier to both report to their funders and acquire additional financing. Distributors procure working capital more easily if they can prove sales or repayments are steady or even increasing.
In short, access to high-quality and verified data as provided by Prospect in an open-source manner is key to improving long-term financing access for ambitious electrification strategies. It radically simplifies monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning – and enables donors and investors to put their money where there is value and impact.
Visit GET.invest and A2EI at booths #31 and #11&12 at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum & Expo to be part of the official Prospect launch – and learn more about how to collaborate with us!
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GET.invest is a European programme that mobilises investments in renewable energy, supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria. It is a Supporting Partner of the Off-Grid Forum & Expo 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.
A2EI, the first not-for-profit and collaborative research and development institute aiming to advance renewable energy access in emerging economies, is a GOGLA member. A2EI provides broad, reliable open-source data and on-the-ground research, develops solar system and appliance prototypes, and initiates pilot projects in target regions.
The lack of comprehensive and user-friendly data on project performance poses one of the major obstacles to funding. Private investors and public donors alike will, rightfully, be hesitant to put their funds behind projects that cannot transparently disclose their track record and ongoing performance.
While a range of data management platforms exist, these solutions are mostly product-, project- or country-specific, or they are proprietary. To fill this gap, the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) and the European programme GET.invest, with the support of the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, have partnered to develop the data platform Prospect. The new platform provides the sector with a product-agnostic, global, and free-of-charge open-source data management system adhering to strict data privacy policies. It will be officially launched at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo 2022 in Kigali. Besides a launch session, a dedicated exhibition stand will present Prospect throughout the forum, where interested participants can discover and test its features.
Prospect monitors the climate impact of solar generators installed by the Access to Energy Institute to power businesses at Wuse Market, Abuja, Nigeria. Image credit: A2EI
Renewable energy projects can be transparently monitored, evaluated, and reported upon only if data regarding both the individual systems and the entire project is available. This applies to technical data (e.g. energy usage, remote monitoring, and maintenance messages) as well as payment (e.g. repayment patterns for PAYG systems, subsidy disbursements) and impact data (e.g. increased energy access or productivity, reduced carbon emissions).
Prospect aims to offer value to project managers and supranational institutions through a comprehensive and reality-based progress overview on access to energy initiatives. At the same time, it offers valuable insights to data providers – mostly SMEs – which will allow them to make data-driven business decisions in a complex environment. Additionally, it will act as a trust provider for financial and certification institutions who need validation for investment and certification processes. This will reduce transaction and monitoring costs and hence attract additional investment into the sector.
Prospect displays data of different projects such as off-grid solar, productive-use machinery, and mini-grids. Image credit: A2EI
The platform – based upon the earlier initiatives Edison and CLIPP – already exists as a beta version and is currently being further developed by a team of off-grid solar and software experts. The data platform transparently makes multi-layered data available, analysing and visualising it by utilising optimised algorithms. The data is accessible at the individual system level, as well as project or aggregate level – and the team is anticipating to flexibly adjust the software to specific requests in fast iterations.
With Prospect, donors and private investors alike will be able to make well-informed initial financing decisions by easily accessing projects’ installation records, project performance and impact. Grant as well as equity/debt providers will be more comfortable extending additional funds if they know that they can trust the data verified by the A2EI, and can actually assess the effectiveness of their funding strategies. Donors can additionally use Prospect to streamline subsidy payments such as result-based financing (RBFs) schemes. Optimised analysis of impact enables RBF schemes to automatically disburse subsidies as soon as an agreed upon milestone is reached, making them easy to manage at scale.
Government stakeholders may find it convenient to present the success of their electrification strategy with externally verified data. Having comprehensive data of different projects available for the entire country also facilitates the optimisation of electrification strategies – which will in turn improve governments’ ability to make efficient use of donor funds and raise additional funding. A unique value proposition of Prospect for governments is the option to install an independent instance of Prospect within a country or even on-premise. This ensures compliance with an emerging data privacy and security framework across many Sub-Saharan African legislations.
Renewable energy distributors benefit from using the platform free-of-charge. They can show their installation record, impact, as well as a record of their financial performance. Projects that are able to provide granular and trusted data at the individual system and customer level, but also at the aggregate level, find it easier to both report to their funders and acquire additional financing. Distributors procure working capital more easily if they can prove sales or repayments are steady or even increasing.
In short, access to high-quality and verified data as provided by Prospect in an open-source manner is key to improving long-term financing access for ambitious electrification strategies. It radically simplifies monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning – and enables donors and investors to put their money where there is value and impact.
Visit GET.invest and A2EI at booths #31 and #11&12 at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum & Expo to be part of the official Prospect launch – and learn more about how to collaborate with us!
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GET.invest is a European programme that mobilises investments in renewable energy, supported by the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria. It is a Supporting Partner of the Off-Grid Forum & Expo 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.
A2EI, the first not-for-profit and collaborative research and development institute aiming to advance renewable energy access in emerging economies, is a GOGLA member. A2EI provides broad, reliable open-source data and on-the-ground research, develops solar system and appliance prototypes, and initiates pilot projects in target regions.
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