The Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) has commended the Energy Private Developers Association (EPD) for accelerating the adoption of renewable energy technologies dubbed "Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies” among urban and rural communities to be able to generate income.

Jean Bosco Mugiraneza, the acting Director General in charge of energy in the Ministry of Infrastructure, said PURE technologies will play a big role in achieving national renewable energy targets and becoming a zero-carbon economy to mitigate climate change effects.

"Currently 52 per cent of our energy is renewable,” he said.

He said Rwanda aims to have 60 per cent of its energy come from renewable sources such as hydropower and solar by 2030. Currently 76 per cent of Rwandans have access to electricity, an increase from around 10 per cent of households in 2010, he noted.

"We are on course to achieve universal access to electricity. Now we have to think of how energy can help generate income, create jobs, and transform our lives. That is why PURE technologies are highly needed. The renewable energy solutions by the private sector are in line with our national commitment to sustainable development and mitigating the impact of climate change,” he said.

The Energy Private Developers Association (EPD) has embarked on implementing a roadmap to accelerate the adoption of Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies and innovations for income generation in Rwanda.

On March 27, 2024, EPD gathered key stakeholders in the sector including the private sector, civil society organisations, development partners, financial institutions, non-governmental and community organisations, policymakers, research, and academic entities to stimulate rapid growth of PURE in the cross-cutting sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, and health sectors, and other sectors of production linked with rural communities.

Jean Claude Uwizeye, the Chair of Productive Use of Renewable Energy Sub-Sector at EPD said that, as the private sector dealing with renewable energy, they have taken several initiatives to ensure "they make good use of energy not only for basic access but also for generating income for the population.”

"There are commercial activities that need renewable energy technologies such as barbershops and hair salons, welding workshops, and agriculture that use solar-powered irrigation at the production level mainly in off-grid areas. At the post-harvest level, farmers need to keep their harvest in good conditions and therefore they need cooling facilities for perishable goods,” he said.

He said some farmers need to process the harvest using millers which require electricity.

"On the livestock side, rearing cows for example will require a lot of water that can be pumped from sources of water using solar energy. The fodder choppers can be operated using solar power. When you have reached the point of collecting milk in large quantities, you need to conserve milk with a solar-powered cooling system. The milk can then be supplied to milk processing factories,” Uwizeye noted.

He said that there are financing facilities that are available to ensure affordability in adopting renewable technologies.

"Given that the initial investment is huge and the purchasing power of the population is still low, we need to bridge the gap with incentives or subsidies. That is why we look at cross-cutting sectors that use renewable energy technologies. We work with other companies and partners to ensure synergy to reach the goal,” he said.

He noted that EPD is working with the Global Renewables Center (GRC) to accelerate the adoption of Productive Use of Renewable Energy technologies.

"Before you get the financing, we have to build the capacity of our member companies to be able to know how to write good projects that can be presented to the financiers. We also have to build the capacity of our members so that partners and customs deal with the right people,” he said.

Serge Wilson Muhizi, the Chief Executive Officer of EPD, said that bringing together stakeholders was aimed to share different information so that everyone is aware of what is taking place in the Productive Use of Renewable Energy sector.

He said that following the successful launch of Productive Uses of Renewable Energy roadmap and handbook which took place in July 2023 by EPD in partnership with Gogla, it has activated the need to accelerate the awareness of the subsector’s demand and development to design its operating framework, financing arrangement, policies, and standards with a reference to the Rwandan market and all key players through the knowledge exchange platform.

"After the stakeholders’ engagement, we will come up with a concrete action plan and how every stakeholder will contribute to promoting the productive use of renewable energy. The action plan will be guiding activities that every stakeholder will be doing,” he said.

Muhizi said the promotion of Productive Use of Renewable Energy will have a big impact given that Rwanda is transitioning from non-renewable energy to clean energy.

"Rwanda seeks to achieve universal access to electricity. This was mainly responding to the issue of lighting. We are at 76 per cent coverage in the country. The next step is to go to the end users in urban and rural areas to educate them on how they can adopt renewable energy solutions that enable them to generate income such as setting up a barbershop, cold rooms, driers, solar-powered irrigation, and so forth. We have to raise awareness about these solutions for productive use,” he said.

Hub for facilitating knowledge exchange

Damien Frame, the Global Renewables Center (GRC) project manager said that they will provide a hub for facilitating knowledge exchange between stakeholders in international development partner countries and the Scottish Renewable Sector, offering networking, shared learning, and resources that enhance global citizenship and enable increased deployment of sustainable energy.

The GRC, he said, facilitates knowledge exchange between stakeholders in Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, and the Scottish Renewables Sector.

"By enabling the sharing of best practices, innovation case studies, and research outcomes on PURE technology and business models, the GRC will support capacity-building in the Rwanda PURE sector, helping to unlock investment and accelerate the adoption of PURE. GRC communities of practice that bring together international experts will be incubators for collaboration and development of fundable project proposals that also help to push forward the scale-up of PURE in Rwanda,” he noted.

Dorothée Merkl, GIZ Energising Development Advisor, said that they have a project to promote the adoption of renewable energy solutions in agriculture sector value chains.

She said the application for the support was launched on March 27, 2024.

Solar water pumps for irrigation distribution to smallholder farmers by using the Results Based Financing (RBF) mechanism will be used to help increase production.

Results-based financing includes a range of financing mechanisms where financing is linked and provided after the delivery of pre-agreed and verified results.

"The project will make solar-powered irrigation more affordable,” she said.

She said that the project will de-risk solar-powered irrigation financing for the private sector in the energy sector.