AFRICA – AfriLabs, a pan-African network of innovation hubs, has partnered with Emerge Green Africa for an impactful project aimed at fostering green development in Africa through innovative energy modeling.
AfriLabs is a network organization that brings together investors, startups, technology hubs, and other important players in the ecosystem to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the continent.
AfriLabs has a network of 478 hubs spread across 260 locations in 53 African countries after recently announcing the admittance of 16 new hubs.
In the meantime, the Emerge project, underway in December 2023, aims to bridge socioeconomic and cultural gaps while supplying African policymakers, scholars, investors, and citizens with the information and resources needed to boost clean energy generation and the sustainable use of resources.
Through the integration and expansion of current tools, methodologies, and approaches, Emerge will co-design and test a toolbox to simulate scenarios that maximize the use of available resources while considering social, climatic, economic, and technical restrictions.
Furthermore, a knowledge repository containing a compilation of projects, resources, and knowledge-sharing activities will be established.
Three African ecosystems—the Niger River region (Mali/Nigeria), East Africa (Mozambique), and North Western Africa (Morocco)—are where Emerge will create knowledge communities using a participatory methodology.
The North Western Region has enormous potential for building a sustainable, low-carbon economy. Morocco’s electric grid is well developed, currently assuring access to electricity to almost everyone (91.6%).
This makes Morocco an advanced pilot with a strong infrastructure where focus can be placed on cross-sector integration and flexibility increase in addition to accelerated RES integration.
Niger River region is facing the impacts of climate change – desertification and water scarcity. The area is also experiencing anthropogenic activities, leading to deforestation, drought, and diseases.
With streams like the Baoulé, the Bagoé, and the Banifing flowing to the Bani River, the area has the potential for domestic energy.
Although Mozambique has undertaken significant efforts to electrify the country, access to electricity still needs to be improved and mainly focuses on urban areas.
This imbalance represents an essential challenge to achieving country-wide electrification by 2030, considering that the vast majority (63% in 2019) of Mozambique’s population lives in rural areas.
Mozambique’s Fundo de Energia (FUNAE) is the public institution responsible for off-grid rural electrification, with a particular focus on renewable energy. It is directly involved in the Stakeholder Group.
These communities will be fostered through a participatory approach, ensuring a collaborative and inclusive knowledge-sharing environment.
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