Is Madagascar the next enPower.life destination?

Renewable Energies and Mini-Grids in Madagascar: Find out what our COO Behzad learned about Madagascar, why it holds great potential for enPower.life projects, and what that means for our impact investors!

Is Madagascar the next enPower.life destination? Photo by Marine Lacourie on Unsplash

1. Behzad, you just spent an entire virtual week in Madagascar. What was that all about?

The virtual event in Madagascar was a part of “Mittelstand Global Exportinitiative Energie” program. The Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with the Renewables Academy (RENAC) AG, organized an online conference about self-supply with Renewable Energies and Mini-Grids in Madagascar. The primary goal of this conference and the B2B meetings was to encourage exchange and explore business opportunities for self-supply and mini-grids between Malagasy and German technology and service providers, institutions and sector experts.

 

2. What was one interesting thing you learned?

It was interesting to learn about the huge potential for renewable energies for self-supply and mini-grids in Madagascar. The current power access rate is only 16%, for a population of 28 million people. On top of that, the expansion of renewable energy is a top priority for the government of Madagascar!

 

3. What does this mean for enPower.life?

I see Madagascar as one of our future destinations. The conditions for energy businesses like enPower.life are very good: Laws make it easy to implement energy plants in the off grid segment, and net metering and feed in tariffs are included in the country’s legal frameworks. A new law allows licensed IPPs (Independent Power Producers) like us to sell electricity, so those are good starting conditions!

In addition, I had around ten B2B meetings and it became evident that there is a high local demand for solar solutions like ours as well as a strong pre-existing network. Both the people of Madagascar as well as our investors could therefore benefit from enPower.life activities.

 

The solar potential is extremly high almost all over Madagascar. Perfect conditions to expand solar energy for a sustainable energy supply for the island! © 2019 The World Bank

The solar potential is extremly high almost all over Madagascar. Perfect conditions to expand solar energy for a sustainable energy supply for the island! © 2019 The World Bank

4. What makes Madagascar an excellent destination for enPower.life projects?

The most exciting feature of the solar market in Madagascar is the huge solar potential in combination with the huge demand for renewable energy generally, and specifically, the opportunity to transition solar energy from mere energy production to agriculture and specifically, the food industry, as well as tourism. Both the location of the island and the way the energy grid is organized enable enPower.life to build a solid portfolio to the benefit of our investors and the local community.

 

5. How are these future plans relevant to our investors?

It feels great to be able to offer so many advantages to our community of impact investors! We usually have different investors with individual reasons to invest in enPower.life projects. For instance, we have many impact investors who really care about investing in the life of our energy consumers and get involved in the development of our target countries. In Madagascar, there is an incredibly high demand for electrification, and we are targeting dirty diesel generators to be replaced with affordable, reliable, and clean solar energy which provides the opportunity to utilize our impact investors’ contribution in the best way possible. On top of that, our impact investors are interested in sustainable profit. By selling our electricity to off-grid clients who are currently dependent on expensive diesel as the only source of electricity, we have a unique opportunity to maximize the profit for both our investors and our energy consumers!

 

Only 16% of the population on Madagascar have access to electricity. The expansion of renewable energies us a high priority for the government of Madagascar. Photo by gemmmm on Unsplash

Only 16% of the population on Madagascar have access to electricity. The expansion of renewable energies us a high priority for the government of Madagascar. Photo by gemmmm on Unsplash