EDP funds nine projects that promote access to energy in four African countries
14 November 2022 – Financing of one million euros, under the fourth edition of Access to Energy Fund, reinforces EDP‘s social impact strategy in emerging economies and its focus on ensuring a fair energy transition. The projects now selected will benefit close to one million people in four African countries.
EDP will support nine more projects that promote access to renewable energy in remote and vulnerable communities in four African countries: Mozambique, Nigeria, Angola and Malawi. The total funding of one million euros – guaranteed by the A2E Fund (Access to Energy) – will have a direct impact in priority areas such as health, agriculture, education and access to drinking water, involving more than one million direct and indirect beneficiaries.
The use of decentralised solar energy and energy storage technologies are at the basis of all the projects selected in this fourth edition of A2E Fund, in a total of 158 applications. Among these projects, there is, for example, a system of solar suitcases that supply energy to maternity hospitals, micro-electric grids to supply clinical posts, solar systems for agricultural production or cold storage in local markets.
EDP thus reinforces its social impact strategy, promoting energy inclusion in more disadvantaged territories. In the case of Africa, which represents around 70% of the world’s population without access to electricity, this support is another contribution to meeting the needs of decarbonisation, climate action and access to energy – this is, in fact, one of the topics on the agenda of COP27, the United Nations Climate Conference, which is being held in Egypt until 18 November.
“Access to electricity is crucial to ensure the security and development of any community – and is an impactful issue in many remote communities or in more vulnerable situations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our commitment, now reinforced with the funding of nine more projects, is to continue contributing to facilitate this access to clean, safe and low-cost energy in these communities, and thus promote energy inclusion,” adds Vera Pinto Pereira, executive board member of EDP and responsible for the group’s global social impact strategy.
“The positive impact that EDP wants to have is measured by each of the lives that we help to change with this support. Whether it’s a child who can now study at night in their home because they have lighting, a doctor or nurse who now has emergency equipment to assist births and surgeries, or a saleswoman who can preserve their fresh produce in the market for longer and thus increase their family income.”
One million more people benefited
Nigeria, with four projects, and Mozambique, with three, are once again the countries with the most proposals selected in this fourth edition of the A2E Fund. Regarding Nigeria, the chosen promoters are We Care Solar (energy for maternity hospitals), Konexa (electrification of clinical posts and adjacent communities), Reeddi (solar capsules for families and small businesses) and Optimal Greening Foundation (drinking water and sanitation project).
In Mozambique, the entities selected were the Educafrica Association (electrification of school and community equipment in a fishing island), ADPP Mozambique (refrigeration system for fish market) and Fundación Energia sin Fronteras (electrification of an orphanage farm). Fundación Cuerama, with a project for the electrification of equipment serving a community, is the selected promoter in Angola, and aQysta Malawi, with a solar powered agricultural processing system, is the chosen project in Malawi.
With this fourth edition of the A2E Fund – a corporate social responsibility fund that doubled the amount of funding to 1 million euros in 2022 – EDP continues the program started in 2018. In the three previous editions, the fund has already provided a total of 1.5 million euros to support 20 projects in seven African countries (Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania) that have contributed to improving the lives of 80,000 people and indirectly, more than one million. A positive impact that is reinforced in this new edition of the programme, which is estimated to benefit directly more than 40,000 people and indirectly more than 900,000 in these territories.
EDP thus reinforces its commitment to the planet’s sustainability, through the dissemination of renewable energies and the fight against poverty and electric exclusion that still affect the lives of millions of people, especially in remote rural communities in developing countries. The support to these projects is thus a decisive contribution to ensure a more sustainable, inclusive and fair future, in line with the company’s own ambition of being totally green by 2030.