Bernie Jones Our Colombo media workshop was a two-day residential event featuring a combination of background briefings from local and international experts and entrepreneurs on energy markets and developments in the South Asian off-grid sector. The workshop offered an opportunity to explore the Smart Villages concept and study nascent Smart Village projects and relevant technologies from around the world More info: http://e4sv.org/events/south-asia-media-dialogue-workshop/

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
Dr Bernie Jones
November 2015

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IN THE WORLD TODAY…
■ More than 1 billion
people without access to
electricity
■ 3 billion people still
cooking on dirty,
inefficient and harmful
stoves
■ As a result, 4 million
people dying each year

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UN SE4ALL INITIATIVE
■ Ensure universal access to modern energy
services by 2030

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UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY BY 2030
30%
70%
New connections in rural areas
IEA World Energy Outlook
Grid extension
Mini-grid and
home-based

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ENERGY AS A CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT
Local
business

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SMART CITIES: NEED FOR A VILLAGE LEVEL
ANALOGUE
SMART
VILLAGES
SMART
CITIES
47% of world’s
population and 70% of
the world’s poor live in
rural villages

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SMART VILLAGES: SOME KEY FEATURES
Education and health services
 ICT connectivity: distance learning and world’s knowledge base
 Modern health services and tele-medicine
Foster entrepreneurship in provision and use of energy services
 Capture more of the agricultural value chain
 Create new businesses
Through ICT connectivity, participate in governance processes
 At local, regional and national levels
 Creating smart communities with strong rural/urban linkages
Building more resilient communities better able to
respond to shocks
 Clean water and sanitation
 Affordable and nutritious food

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SHIFTING THE BALANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES
BETWEEN CITIES AND VILLAGES
Technological
advances
Game changing
technologies

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
Focus: local solutions for rural communities: mini/micro-
grid and home-based approaches
Policy advice: an insightful, ‘view from the frontline’ of
the challenges of village energy provision for
development, and how they can be overcome
Engagement: bringing together the key players:
scientists, entrepreneurs, villagers, NGO’s, financers,
regulators and policy makers etc:
 What are the barriers?
 How can they be overcome?
 What messages to funders and policymakers?

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Frontline
experience
Smart Villages
Initiative
More
effective
policy &
interventions
SVI: CONNECTION – INTERPRETATION – SYNTHESIS

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Project team:
Universities of
Cambridge and
Oxford
Key partners:
- National Science
Academies
- Practical Action /
TERI / Kopernik
Funding:
charitable
foundations:
CMEDT & TWCF
SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE: A PARTNERSHIP

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SIX REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMMES
 East Africa – June 2014
 SE Asia – January 2015
 South Asia – April 2015
 South America – January 2016
 West Africa – April 2016
 Central America – November 2016

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SIX REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMMES
 East Africa – June 2014
 SE Asia – January 2015
 South Asia – April 2015
 South America – January 2016
 West Africa – April 2016
 Central America – November 2016
• Workshops → reports/policy briefs
• Briefing meetings
• Capacity building events
• Media training/dialogue
• Entrepreneurial competition
• Final event pulling together key stakeholders

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CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES
Forward look workshops
Research projects
Communications / outreach:
■ Book of Essays
■ Pocket guide
■ Webinars
■ Website: www.e4sv.org
Ongoing interaction with policy-makers and
stakeholders
Concluding events:
■ European Union
■ International (UN, World Bank etc.)

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
1. A key aim: identify framework conditions to:
 foster entrepreneurial activities
 maximise leverage of public sector funding
2. An underlying premise: to maximise social
benefit and development impact:
 integrate energy access with other development initiatives
 take a community level approach
3. An important concern:
 to catalyse rapid progression through the various levels of
energy access

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SO WHAT IS A SMART VILLAGE?
■ Some examples from
■ Tanzania
■ Borneo

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable,
sustainable and modern energy for all
■ 7.1 By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable,
reliable and modern energy services
■ 7.2 By 2030, increase substantially the share of
renewable energy in the global energy mix
■ 7.3 By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in
energy efficiency

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GOAL 7: MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION TARGETS
■ 7.a By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access
to clean energy research and technology, including renewable
energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel
technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and
clean energy technology.
■ 7.b By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for
supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in
developing countries, in particular least developed countries, land
locked developing countries and small island developing States in
accordance with their respective programmes of action.
→ Investment in Energy Infrastructure
→ Research and Technology

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INVESTMENT IN ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
■ Maximise leverage of public sector funding:
■ additional US$ 50 billion + every year (10x current; c.f. fossil fuel subsidy)
■ need access to all sources of financing including international climate funds
■ Supportive policy and regulatory frameworks:
 plea from entrepreneurs: less red tape and some breathing space
 nurture home grown enterprises: business incubation / advisory support services
■ Integrate with other development initiatives:
 associated investments in healthcare, education, clean water/sanitation etc.
 investment in new enterprises and increased productivity of existing income
generating activities
 Make aware of possibilities
 Ensure all have opportunities
 Access to markets and finance
 Example of AEPC in Nepal

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INVESTMENT IN ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE (2)
 Access to affordable finance:
 investment capital for mini-grid developers: support to de-risk and lower interest
rates
 working capital for SMEs to accelerate roll-out of SHS and solar lights
 novel financing schemes/business models for end-users
 Public-private-community partnerships:
 community ownership and involvement necessary for success: key investment
 Preparatory work: understand and build on local cultures and lifestyles
 Build relationships & partner with trusted individuals and organisations
 identify, train and support local champions
 important role of rural energy agencies to facilitate connections

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RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
■ Expanding the range of accessible services/appliances:
■ energy escalator approach to higher powers: TV, fridge, sewing machine etc.
■ low energy appliances
■ Reducing costs / increasing durability:
■ key contribution to economic viability
■ potential future breakthroughs: e.g. printable organic solar cells
■ need for focus on enhancing batteries: cost and lifetime
■ poor quality products: quality assurance mechanisms
■ Scale of electricity systems:
■ home/institution based
■ small clusters of houses: DC nano-grids
■ village-level AC mini-grids
■ Research and development:
■ more applied research: improved links between university researchers & SMEs
■ need for: improved control systems, ‘plug-and-play’ technologies, recycling

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GOAL 17: STRENGTHEN THE MEANS OF
IMPLEMENTATION…
■ Need for better collaboration:
 a confusion/competition of funders
 put in place frameworks for cooperation
■ Value of sharing of information & experiences:
 across East Africa and with other regions: role for the Smart Villages Initiative
 case studies of smart villages: value as integrating concept
 government/donor funded datasets of wind, hydro etc. potential
 Focus on capacity building:
 systematic analysis across all stages and actors: training schemes to plug gaps
 Develop approaches to monitor/evaluate development outcomes

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BUT WAIT A SECOND… REMEMBER THIS ONE?
“integrate energy access with
other development initiatives” ?

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LET’S LOOK AT ALL THOSE SDG’S
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests,
combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and
build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

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OFF-GRID DEVELOPMENT
■ All but one of the SDGs have a direct
connection to rural energy access and
empowerment
■ …and we’re still thinking about that 17th
one!

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Thank you for your attention
www.e4sv.org | info@e4sv.org | @e4SmartVillages