East African Actors: Ocean and Renewables

East Africa has the lowest electrification rates in the world with over three quarters of the population having no access to electricity. Along with the low electrification rates, is the region's bountiful natural resources which create endless opportunities to electrify the region with renewable energy. In this article you can explore East Africa's pioneers and most important players in the renewable energy industry.

Renewable Energy

PowerGen Renewable Energy is a micro-grid developer, implementer, and operator in East and West Africa, reshaping the prevailing rural electrification model in the region.

PowerGen is creating an African energy system that utilizes clean, renewable energy and smarter grids to deliver power to all.

Greenlight Planet designs, distributes and finances Sun King solar home energy solutions to households and businesses who lack reliable access to the grid. Since its founding in 2008, the company has become a leading global provider of solar home energy products to over 45 million rural consumers in collaboration with 300 partners across the world.

ENGIE Energy Access is the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) solar and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa, with a mission to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy solutions and life-changing services with exceptional customer experience.

ASOBO is building a sustainable platform for e-mobility on the water of Lake Victoria in emerging markets.

SUNami Solar's vision is to bring electricity to every home in the rural areas of East-Africa at an affordable rate and build awareness of income generating opportunities with solar energy.

INNO-NEAT is a Solar-tech company that analyses, recycles and repurposes used lithium ion battery cells into Solar Ready battery packs for use in solar applications targeting low income communities.

Roam's vision is to make electric transport more accessible to a broader market by making the technology more cost efficient and simplifying deployment.

East African Power (EAP) is a utility scale renewable energy developer specialising in hydro and solar power in emerging markets.

Rockwill Green Energy East Africa Ltd partners with institutions with High Electricity Demand to develop solar projects that can help reduce their operational expenses by a huge margin.

The Kenya Biogas Program (KBP) is the lead entity implementing the Africa Biogas Partnership Program (in Kenya).

KBP envisions a commercially viable domestic biogas sector that would contribute towards food security, clean/sustainable use of energy and environmental conservation.

Biogen Kenya is a producer of renewable and environment friendly fuel, the bio-diesel, delivered from waste vegetable oils.

Biopage Energy Company provides a peer-to-peer trading platform for clean energy sources and environmentally-responsible services. The platform covers a variety of clean energy sources such as solar energy, biogas, biomass and briquettes, as well as services such as waste management and smart farming.

Go Solar Ltd is a leading Kenyan solar company with over 3000 successful residential and commercial installations since 2003.

Equator Energy has installed, owns and operates more solar power plants and more solar capacity than any other commercial and industrial solar company in our home market of Kenya and in all of East Africa.

African Solar Designs, Ltd. (ASD) is a leading Kenya-based renewable energy company that provides a range of technical and advisory services with a focus on engineering and clean energy advisory.

EACREEE operates as a key entry point for the implementation of international funding to mitigate climate change in the energy sector.

Aquaculture and Marine Industry

Ocean's Alive's team collectively has over 60 years of experience in community-based management of marine resources in East Africa.

Aqua-Farms Organization is committed to furnish Tanzania Inland and coastal people with new source of income, allowing improved access to food, promoting community health, protecting the aquatic biodiversity, rebuilding fisheries with sustainable, equitable and viable Aquaculture.

Aqua-Farms Hatcheries is a youth-led science-based tilapia hatchery whose goal is to expand the production of sustainable, on-site fish fingerling supply while creating employment opportunities by harnessing this symbiotic relationship between plant and fish of aquaponic vegetable cultivation fertilized by the fish waste, independent of external supply chains vulnerable for exploitation.

FoodTechAfrica Aquaculture Academy trains and builds ‘aquapreneurs’ to run sustainable and profitable businesses, who will inspire others to become fish farmers and spur economic prosperity throughout the sector. It is the preferred aquaculture learning institution in the region for stakeholders across the value chain.

Investors and Accelerator Programs

Gatsby Africa is and accelerator program working in partnership to catalyse and demonstrate sector transformation in East Africa.

SunFunder is a 40 person team, based in Nairobi, London and Paris, that has built the most extensive track record of distributed solar investments in Africa – financing 60 solar companies over the last decade.

Kenya Climate Innovation Center offers incubation, capacity building and financing options to new, small and medium business ventures and Kenyan entrepreneurs that are developing innovations to address the challenges of climate change. We provide holistic and country-driven support to accelerate the development, deployment and transfer of locally relevant climate technologies.

Hindsight Ventures is an accelerator dedicated to early stage tech startups from Africa. This is the East Africa Chapter of 1Million Startups, which is a global entrepreneurship community based in Vienna, Austria and currently in 65 Countries.

The meeco Group with the headquarters in Zug (Switzerland) is a globally operating company. Our highly skilled, trained, certified and dedicated experts in different fields of energy and energy storage are working as an integrated and well honed team, supporting the subsidiaries located in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, as well as in North, Latin America and the Caribbean.

EEP Africa provides early-stage grant and catalytic financing to innovative clean energy projects, technologies and business models in 15 countries across Southern and East Africa. Project financing is supplemented by technical support, investment facilitation and knowledge sharing.

M-KOPA is the pioneer and global leader of Connected Asset Financing that offers millions of underbanked customers access to life-enhancing products. Our advanced connected asset financing platform combines digital micropayments and IoT connectivity to offer access to products including solar lighting, televisions, fridges, smartphones, financial services and more.