New campaign will accelerate energy access for all by ten years

NEW YORK – (May 21, 2015) – A new body dedicated to promoting the fastest, most cost-effective and sustainable approach to universal energy access has been launched at the second annual United Nation’s Sustainable Energy For All week in New York. 

Power for All was co-founded by Practical Action and seeks to accelerate universal energy access by asking governments, lenders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector and energy consumers to respond to specific calls to action, in order achieve universal energy access by 2025, 10 years earlier than experts currently predict.

Almost all of the 1.2 billion people without access to electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. Of those without access, 85 percent live in rural areas the electricity grid will never reach. 

Centralized energy generation is too costly (rural grid extension can cost up to $22,000 per kilometer), time-intensive (it takes 5-10 years to build a standard power-plant) and inefficient (including transmission losses as high as 25 percent) to provide an effective solution for those without energy access in the developing world.

Kristina Skierka, Campaign Director for Power for All, said: “Current estimates to achieve basic energy access for the 1.2 billion living in energy poverty are a spend of $700 billion and a time scale of 20 years. 

"The financial costs are daunting and the opportunity costs are unacceptable; it is time to challenge conventional wisdom.

“By focusing on key accelerators that will help leapfrog ‘business as usual’ energy delivery. Just as mobile phones leapfrogged landlines in the developing world, we believe that we can achieve universal energy access in half the time for a fraction of the anticipated costs.”

Aaron Leopold, Global Energy Representative of Power for All founding organization Practical Action said: “It often goes unrecognised that  off-grid renewable energy is a key solution to the dual energy crises of the 21^st century. 

“The clean energy needed to combat energy poverty is the same clean energy needed to combat climate change, and we must bring discussions on these two topics together, both in the halls of politics and in the board rooms of the world. Decentralised renewables are the way forward both for people and the planet, and it’s time to get to work.” 

Koen Peters, Executive Director of the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association and a founding member of the Power for All campaign said; "We shouldn’t have to wait a generation for universal energy access. Decentralized, renewable market-based solutions can deliver energy access today.

“The market for solar light and power in the developing world is growing very fast to meet demand, and already reaching millions of households. Several GOGLA member companies are already outpacing the world’s traditional electrical utilities in terms of number of customers.”

In advance of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21^st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, Power for All is issuing a call to action for policy makers, stakeholders, entrepreneurs and customers engaged in driving universal energy access for the billions of people without reliable power. 

With today’s launch, Power for All will urge governments to institute policies in support of renewable, decentralized solutions (including Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDCs) for UNFCCC talking in Paris and national energy plans); encourages investors, multi-lateral agencies and banks to mobilize capital and earmark funds specifically for decentralized, renewable solutions; and, encourages development agencies, foundations and non-governmental organizations to direct grants toward sustainable market-building initiatives (including support for consumer education and marketing) that directly engage the energy impoverished in creating their own energy.

Power for All hopes to bring special focus to a critical mass of countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

About Power for All

Power for All is a global education and advocacy campaign founded by energy access practitioners and implementers to advance renewable, decentralized solutions as the fastest, most cost-effective and sustainable approach to universal energy access. Power for All—whose founders include d.light, the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association, Greenlight Planet, Off-Grid Electric, Practical Action, the Sierra Club and Solar Aid—is committed to delivering access to energy for to the 85 percent of the 1.2 billion people without reliable power that live in rural areas before 2030. Learn more at www.powerforall.com