The following documents encompass the required documentation for the World Bank Group funded project, Quality Assurance Capacity Building for the Off-Grid Solar Sector.

Please also note that in the same documents – under the Grievance Redress Mechanism sections – you can find information on where and how stakeholders can file a complaint and have access to feedback mechanism for any project-related labor, employment and ethical complaints, concerns and comments.

Our latest whitepaper, Resilient Appliances for Resilient People and Planet, explores the underrated yet critical application of quality assurance in developing and identifying climate-resilient solar appliances, thereby building communities’ resilience against climate-related risks.

In 2022, the number of people without access to energy rose for the first time, and climate change threatens to de-rail ongoing efforts. High-performing, solar-powered appliances suitable for resource-constrained settings have the dual advantage of delivering energy access to some of the most vulnerable communities that are often disconnected from the grid, while also building their resilience to climate risks like high temperatures, water scarcity and natural disasters. However, not all appliances are created equal. Only high-performing, durable and energy-efficient appliances can maximise climate resilience.

This whitepaper unpacks dimensions of quality that are important to measure and assess, such as safety, performance, durability or repairability and ease of handling e-waste. It then maps how these quality metrics can fortify products in the face of specific climate risks.

By disseminating this message on the importance of quality assurance, and supporting quality assurance programs like VeraSol, the off-grid solar sector can help ensure that life-saving appliances not only reach bottom-of-the-pyramid customers but also reliably help them withstand global climatic challenges.

Download the whitepaper here: Resilient Appliances for Resilient People and Planet

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote renewable and energy efficient appliances to deliver clean energy to the world’s poorest people. It is coordinated jointly by CLASP and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.

Kigali, Rwanda, 19 October 2022 – Today at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo, CLASP and Nithio launched a USD $6.5 million financing facility to catalyze uptake of productive use appliances across Africa. The facility will improve appliance affordability for consumers and companies and is supported by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP).

Access to productive use appliances can deliver significant economic, health, education, and quality of life benefits for an estimated 60 million households worldwide and put under-electrified parts of the world on a low carbon pathway to electrification. Yet, affordability remains a major barrier to access and scale.

Speaking during the facility’s launch in Kigali, Rwanda, Jeff Stottlemyer, Director at CLASP said, “This facility is designed to catalyze private investment in productive use appliance markets at scale, making those appliances more affordable and accessible.” CLASP and Nithio identified six appliance technologies based on their relative maturity and potential to drive development impact – walk-in cold rooms, refrigerators, electric cookers, fans, mills, and solar water pumps.

Chianda Njogu, Senior Associate at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) said, “By making productive use appliances affordable and accessible, the facility can transform lives by enhancing income generated by smallholder farmers and micro-enterprises, creating new green energy enabled jobs, and improving the sustainability of renewable energy infrastructure projects through increased demand for electricity.”

The facility will initially operate in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda based on growth potential and market maturity.

Kate Steel, Chief Executive Officer at Nithio said, “Consumer financing is crucial to long-term, sustainable growth in the productive use market. GEAPP’s support will enable Nithio to leverage our unique, data-drive approach to make consumer financing accessible for more companies and, ultimately, make it easier for their customers to afford these life-changing technologies.”

How it Works

The facility will offer procurement subsidies, capacity building grants, consumer financing, and advisory support focused on credit systems development for productive use appliance distributors. It will lower appliance costs for end-users by discounting the price of bulk solar appliance procurements and providing financing for distributors to enable them to sell their products on credit.

For more information, please visit our website. Grant requests and general enquiries should be sent to Financing@clasp.ngo. For media enquiries, please contact Lisa Kahuthu (lkahuthu@clasp.ngo)

About CLASP

CLASP focuses on appliance & equipment energy performance and quality, to mitigate and adapt to climate change and expand access to clean energy. Super-efficient and high quality appliances accelerate access to and use of renewable energy for the world’s poorest people. CLASP supports progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7, affordable and sustainable energy for all. Renewable energy services like cooling, communications, and mechanization empower low-income communities and improve lives in a climate friendly way. CLASP works globally and has teams in Washington, DC; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi, India; Brussels, Belgium; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

About NITHIO

Nithio is an energy financing platform powered by its innovative credit risk analytics engine. Nithio leverages its deep sector expertise, geospatial data, and artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast repayment patterns by consumer segment, provide detailed insight on projected cash flows, and finance energy access technologies.

About the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP)

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of local entrepreneurs, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. Our common mission is to support developing countries’ shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that ensures universal energy access and unlocks a new era of inclusive economic growth, while enabling the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade. In doing so, as an Alliance we aim to enable 150 million new jobs, reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, and expand clean energy access to one billion people. With philanthropic partners, Bezos Earth Fund, IKEA Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyze new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, and deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions, and assist just transition solutions. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on Twitter at @EnergyAlliance.

Media Contact:

Eric Gay

Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet

+1 917 912 6190,

eric.gay@energyalliance.org

We are pleased to share that Elisa Lai is taking over the leadership of CLASP’s off-grid quality assurance team and has been promoted to Senior Manager. In this new role, Elisa will oversee all aspects of VeraSol quality assurance at CLASP, from program design and operations to strategic engagement and partnerships. Previously, Ari Reeves held this position. He has also recently transitioned into a new role – Senior Director of Research at CLASP.

VeraSol is built on a solid foundation of partnerships dedicated to serving the off-grid solar sector. Since 2016, CLASP has partnered with the Schatz Energy Research Center, led by Dr. Arne Jacobson, to implement the quality assurance program. CLASP and the Schatz Center continue to work as one team to deliver top-notch quality assurance services to the sector.

‘Elisa Lai has been an excellent and effective collaborator for our work on VeraSol over the past six years. I am very pleased that Elisa has been selected to lead CLASP’s off-grid quality assurance efforts. Our team at the Schatz Center looks forward to continuing to work closely with her and the rest of the CLASP team,’ says Dr. Jacobson.

Elisa has been with CLASP since 2010 and has been an integral contributor to the VeraSol program since 2016. Elisa pioneered VeraSol’s Product Database, manages test method development and oversees product testing for a growing suite of appliances and productive use technologies, including refrigerators, solar water pumps, and electric pressure cookers.

Elisa has also been instrumental in expanding VeraSol’s certification services to include off-grid solar refrigerators, marking a significant milestone for VeraSol and unlocking future services for a variety of off-grid solar appliances and productive use equipment.

‘The off-grid solar market continues to evolve and change rapidly, which presents a unique challenge and opportunity for VeraSol. Working alongside a talented and dynamic team, I look forward to exploring new and enhanced quality assurance services VeraSol can deliver to the off-grid sector.’ says Elisa.

Visit this page to see the full team contributing to VeraSol quality assurance and learn more about the program here.

Currently, the information on the penetration of off-grid solar appliances and how consumers experience and interact with them is quite limited. VeraSol recognizes that this kind of data is essential for manufacturers to design products more effectively, for sector stakeholders to identify market gaps, and for programs and policymakers to scale quality assurance (QA) efforts. Using data collected during the 2021 CLASP commissioned study on off-grid solar product usage from 4,195 surveyed households in Kenya, the VeraSol team has taken a deeper look at solar appliance data to produce new insights on ownership of and consumer experience with off-grid solar appliances in Kenya.

Key findings from this research include:

• Top consumer considerations when purchasing solar appliances
• Insights on ownership and projected demand for TVs, refrigerators and solar water pumps in Kenya
• Other consumer perspectives on solar appliance affordability, accessibility, and after-sales care

Download the Kenya Consumer Experience Study: Insights on Solar Appliances report.

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote renewable and energy efficient appliances to deliver clean energy to the world’s poorest people. It is coordinated jointly by CLASP and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.

High-quality productive use equipment (PUE) has the potential to increase the productivity of business owners and farmers in rural and underserved communities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and accelerate the uptake of renewable energy solutions such as solar home systems and mini-grid developments. However, these nascent PUE are complex technologies with unproven commercial paths, making it risky for off-grid solar companies and distributors to confidently invest in and deploy new PUE.

Access to reliable data and information about the performance, durability, and safety of PUE enables these market stakeholders to make informed decisions and identify high-quality, energy-efficient technologies. Responding to the market needs, VeraSol developed the Rapid Product Assessment framework, which offers a flexible, cost-effective, and timesaving approach to verify the quality of nascent PUE technologies.

The team selected egg incubators as the first trial product for the Rapid Product Assessment approach due to their potential to significantly increase the productivity of poultry farmers and rural households. VeraSol partnered with Kijani Testing, a Kenya-based research and testing facility, to conduct egg incubator testing.

Read the report for insights on the testing and evaluation processes and learnings from the egg incubator testing pilot.

Download the report here: Rapid Product Assessment: A New Approach to Testing Productive Use Appliances

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote renewable and energy efficient appliances to deliver clean energy to the world’s poorest people. It is coordinated jointly by CLASP and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.

Nairobi, Kenya, November 16, 2021– The growth of the off-grid solar sector into a USD 1.75 billion industry, delivering energy services to 420 million global users, speaks to the sectors’ immense value. CLASP, which leads the VeraSol quality assurance initiative, commissioned a study to evaluate consumers’ experiences with off-grid solar products in Kenya, a global off-grid market leader. Overall, the consumers surveyed confirmed that off-grid solar products are indeed delivering as expected, with about 70% expressing satisfaction with solar products’ durability, price and aftersales services offered.

“It seems that years of quality assurance and consumer awareness support have had their intended impact and led to Kenya’s consumers being more discerning when purchasing solar products, which could be a significant factor in driving the high levels of user satisfaction,” says Dana Rysankova, Global Lead for Energy Access at the World Bank.

This study was the first of its kind and sought to complement existing data gathered through laboratory testing by focusing on how consumers interact with quality-verified and non-quality verified products. “This type of consumer survey is important and will continue to be critical for the sector to understand the effectiveness of adopting quality standards by interrogating the type of products that ultimately reach the consumer and the user experience (which supports the need for quality verification of products),” says Pauline Githugu, Team Leader for the UK aid-sponsored Africa Clean Energy Technical Assistance Facility.

In addition to being a key off-grid market, Kenya is also an early adopter of the IEC quality standards for solar products, making it a suitable example of the value of leveraging government support in implementing national quality assurance measures. EED Advisory conducted the consumer study by visiting and interviewing a nationally representative sample of 3915 households in early 2021 about their experiences with solar lanterns, lighting kits, home systems, and appliances. The study found that 28% of Kenyan households have access to at least one standalone off-grid solar product, with 21% using it as the primary source of lighting. Rural households were more than twice as likely to have off-grid solar products as were urban households (37% vs 16%), and seven counties (Homa Bay, Kilifi, Kitui, Machakos, Migori, Narok and Siaya) stood out as having a higher prevalence of off-grid solar products compared to the rest of the country.

The study results highlight a clear link between quality assurance and consumer satisfaction in many but not all aspects. For example, respondents indicated similar satisfaction rates with product durability for quality-verified (77%) versus non-quality verified (72%) solar lighting systems. However, for product breakdowns, a significantly higher proportion of non-quality verified solar lanterns (19%) and solar home systems (31.3%) were reported to have broken down compared to quality-verified ones (9.2% and 8.9%, respectively). There was a stark difference in repair cost, with non-quality verified lanterns over three times more expensive to repair than quality-verified lanterns in Kenya.

The study proposes building firm-level verification methods and standards, strengthening partnerships between affiliate brands and last-mile distributors, and leveraging brand integrity to predict products’ quality and service to enhance quality assurance. Read the full ‘Quality in the Off-Grid Solar Market: An Assessment of the Consumer Experience in Kenya’ report for more information.

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About VeraSol

An evolution of Lighting Global Quality Assurance, VeraSol supports high-performing, durable off-grid products that expand access to modern energy services. VeraSol builds upon the strong foundation for quality assurance laid by the World Bank Group and expands its services to encompass off-grid appliances, productive use equipment, and component-based solar home systems. VeraSol is managed by CLASP in collaboration with the Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University. Foundational support is provided by the World Bank Group’s Lighting Global program, UK aid, IKEA Foundation and others. Please visit VeraSol.org for more information.

For media inquiries, please get in touch with Lisa Kahuthu at lkahuthu@clasp.ngo.

The off-grid appliance space, especially for larger productive use appliances, has not caught up with the conventional on-grid market. However, advancements, such as reduced prices of solar power modules, have led to new and more powerful solar-powered appliances becoming more widely available. But as these appliances enter new markets, asset owners, investors, companies, donors, researchers and industry support organisations must evaluate and compare product performance and impact. Efforts to bridge the existing information gaps include:

• Monitoring energy production
• Measuring energy utilisation by connected electrical products
• Monitoring the delivered service to quantify the impact of the products.

It is becoming common practice to assess the technical performance of off-grid appliances through laboratory testing programs like VeraSol and the Global LEAP Awards. Lab testing, however, has limitations in determining the full spectrum of product performance, especially where user interaction is a significant factor. To address this, remote monitoring systems can evaluate the long-term performance of off-grid appliances in the field as consumers use and interact with products. This report details beta testing of remote monitoring solutions to gather data on solar refrigerators, solar water pumps and solar milking machines usage and optimise product performance.

Key takeaways include:

• Beta testing is essential for a smooth monitoring process and ensures that the data collected meets the required accuracy and utility conditions
• A one-size-fits-all monitoring solution is not suitable for appliances with different testing needs and complexity; therefore, field testing monitoring solutions will require customisation
• Understanding the network providers’ landscape in the target countries is crucial in developing an adaptable solution that can work even in areas with poor connectivity

Download the Evaluating Appliance Performance in the Field: Results from Remote Monitoring Solutions Beta Testing report to learn more.

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote renewable and energy efficient appliances to deliver clean energy to the world’s poorest people. It is coordinated jointly by CLASP and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.

With 220 million people, Nigeria has the largest population and one of the biggest economies in Africa. Nigeria also has one of the greatest energy access challenges. Almost half the population does not have access to electricity, and those that do face frequent power outages. This large weak- and off-grid population and other contributing factors means Nigeria could become one of the continent’s largest off-grid appliance markets. The potential value of the off-grid appliance market in Nigeria was USD$537 million in 2018, and is expected to almost double by 2030 to USD$929 million.

Insufficient data about off-grid appropriate appliances makes it difficult for manufacturers, policymakers, distributors, mini-grid operators, investors and other market actors to make informed decisions and identify high quality, efficient products. To help address this challenge, Efficiency for Access has worked to gather data on the availability of off-grid appropriate appliances in key countries.

Since 2018, Efficiency for Access has been conducting market scoping surveys in 10 countries. The Off- and Weak-Grid Appliance Market Country Profile for Nigeria explores the overall market landscape in Nigeria, the common power type, size, price, and warranty of off-grid appliances sold in retail markets, and other findings relevant to sector stakeholders working in Nigeria. The profile summarises data collected through market scoping surveys conducted in local retail shops, testing results of products sampled from the market in Nigeria, and interviews with interviewed a range of stakeholders. For the first time, the Nigeria Country Profile also analyzes the types of plugs and connectors sold with products, a key consideration for interoperability.

Findings from market surveys and interviews suggest that the off-grid appliance market in Nigeria is relatively underdeveloped, but growing. Currently, high upfront costs prevent SHSs from reaching Nigerian consumers at great scale, but field consultants shared that there is a shift in perception happening. SHSs and off-grid appliances are starting to be recognized as cost-effective alternatives to generators and unreliable grid supply. The field surveys also found that although most appliances sold in market are AC, several local solar brands are selling highly efficient products. Raising consumer awareness about the long-term benefits of solar technologies, encouraging appropriate financial mechanisms and renewing policy focus to create opportunities to help users switch from generators to SHSs will help the market reach its potential.

Read the full country profile to learn more.

Almost half of Nigerian’s do not have access to electricity, and those that do face frequent power outages. This large off- and weak-grid population and other contributing factors make Nigeria a promising market for future off-grid appliance sales with the potential to become the continent’s largest off-grid appliance market.

Insufficient data about off-grid appropriate appliances makes it difficult for manufacturers, policymakers, distributors, mini-grid operators, investors, and other market actors to make informed decisions and identify high quality, efficient products sold in their region.

To help address this challenge, Efficiency for Access has worked to gather data on the availability of off-grid appropriate appliances in key countries, including Nigeria. The Off- and Weak-Grid Appliance Market Country Profile for Nigeria analyses four types of off-grid appliances surveyed in 2018 and 2020—TVs, fans, refrigerators and SWPs. In 2020, Efficiency for Access expanded the survey to collect data on other off-grid appliances found in the market, and to document the type of connectors or plugs integrated into or sold with the product. The country profile explores the overall market landscape in Nigeria, the common power type, size, price, and warranty of off-grid appliances sold in retail markets, and other findings relevant to sector stakeholders working in Nigeria.

Download the Off- and Weak-Grid Appliance Market: Nigeria here.

About Efficiency for Access

Efficiency for Access is a global coalition working to promote renewable and energy efficient appliances to deliver clean energy to the world’s poorest people. It is coordinated jointly by CLASP and the UK’s Energy Saving Trust.