LBNL collaborates in SURE webinar exploring energy efficiency opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

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USAID’S Scaling Up Renewable Energy (SURE) program convened a webinar on October 27th, 2022 with participation by TetraTech, CLASP and LBNL to identify potential energy efficiency interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), region that is experiencing a rapid population growth and increased energy demand in the sectors of transportation, cooling, buildings and agriculture.

During its participation, LBNL highlighted the building blocks of energy efficiency (standards and retrofits, market priming and financing and policy planning) and provided an example of a successful technical assistance project in South Africa, where significant energy savings were achieved by supporting a standards and labeling program targeting key appliances.

The webinar was attended by more than a hundred representatives from consulting and development organizations in SSA and provided useful inputs to SURE for the development and implementation of impactful energy efficiency interventions in the region.

Training on Efficient and Productive Use of Energy and Business Development delivered to Women Entrepreneurs in Uganda

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Certificate award ceremony of a 3-Day EEEA Training Workshop in Bushenyi, Uganda – Nov 14th to Nov 18th, 2022. LBNL works with a local partner, Clean Energy Enthusiasts (CEE), to run the EEEA program.

The USAID’s Energy Empowers East Africa (EEEA) program, whose objective is to advance the role of women entrepreneurs as agents of change through productive use of electricity (PUE) and the use of energy efficient appliances, concluded its 6th week of trainings in Bushenyi, Uganda. The training series, to be delivered in a total of 8 districts in Uganda, covers instruction on energy use, business planning and financial management, in addition to one-on-one coaching and mentoring sessions with participation of local utilities, local banks and government agencies. The trainings will culminate in the presentation of 16 business plans to financiers at a matchmaking event to be held during the first week of February 2023. EEEA is partnering with local consultant Clean Energy Enthusiasts (CEE) to deliver the training and is also collaborating with USAID’s Feed the Future’s Strategic Investment Activity (SIA) to build a pipeline of investment opportunities on PUE inclusive of women. The event, to be co-organized with SIA, will bring together PUE equipment vendors, financing organizations, women entrepreneurs, government of Uganda officials from the Ministries of Gender and Energy, women and entrepreneurial support programs, Berkeley Lab and USAID/Uganda.

The EEEA training series represents a one-of-a-kind effort to encourage women entrepreneurs working in different economic sectors in rural and peri-urban regions of Uganda to use efficient and productive electric equipment to unlock the benefits of energy access and expand their businesses. It also contributes to including women in SIA’s pipeline of investment opportunities in the region.

Launching of USAID/Mexico Partnership for Net Zero Cities

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LBNL (along with members of USAID’s Energy and Green Cities Division) was invited by USAID/Mexico and RTI to collaborate in the co-creation workshop held in Mexico City on October 25th-27th to kick off the USAID/Mexico Partnership for Net Zero Cities program (PNZC).   LBNL provided an overview of previous and ongoing work supported by USAID to advance energy efficiency in buildings and outlined potential opportunities to collaborate with RTI and the PNZC subcontractors in Mexico. PNZC aims to reduce at least 17.34M CO2e emissions and mobilize $550M in investment by improving energy efficiency measures in the buildings and transportation sectors, while improving local governance and state/municipal finance across five cities (Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Merida, Hermosillo) The workshop was designed to gather inputs for the PNZC Year 1 work plan and to identify the needs of state and municipal actors working with other donors to avoid duplicate efforts.  Ongoing support from the DOE laboratories will help USAID/Mexico to utilize the high capacity of the local consultants/NGOs to demonstrate how to implement climate programs in the buildings and transportation sectors.

LBNL Supporting Implementation of Energy Efficiency Standards in Kenya

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As part of technical assistance provided by USAID’s Kenya Energy Regulatory Partnership Program to develop capacity building on energy efficiency and energy management, LBNL participated in a webinar convened by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) on October 18th for the local USAID mission and for Kenya’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) to deliver the presentation “Standards and Labeling Implementation”. LBNL shared an overview of the process to developing regulations and standards for household appliances, international best practices in standards and labeling, information on household energy consumption dynamics, compliance/enforcement, and case studies from relevant jurisdictions. USAID is supporting EPRA as it evaluates its existing and new MEPS for appliances. The technical inputs by LBNL will contribute to improving capacity of the government to implement a successful MEPS program to improve grid reliability and ensure peak demand increases do not outpace generation.