Executive Brief November 2007

November 2007

The The Executive Update is a briefing on the latest developments in the Lighting Africa project, and is provided to all organizations and individuals participating in the Lighting Africa consortium. For comments, questions, or suggestions, please contact the Lighting Africa project team at support@lightingafrica.org

Lighting Africa Development Marketplace Grant Competition Receives Over 400 Proposals. Over 400 proposals on innovative solutions for off-grid lighting for Africa were received from 54 countries, including 38 African countries. Proposals are currently undergoing review by a team of international assessors. The top 50 finalists will be announced in January and invited to submit full proposals and attend the first global off-grid lighting conference, to take place in Ghana in May 2008. At the event in Ghana, grant winners will be selected and announced. The Lighting Africa Development Marketplace grant competition, open to individuals and organizations from all over the world, was launched on September 4th and the call for proposals closed on October 31, 2007.

Lighting Africa commences work on Quality Assurance for off-grid lighting products in Africa. As part of its effort to shield the African consumer from purchasing poor-performing off-grid lighting products and provide sufficient information to industry players about product quality, Lighting Africa held a successful off-grid lighting Quality Assurance Workshop in October comprised of a group of international experts. The objective of the workshop was to identify a plan for the Lighting Africa program to address the issue of product quality. Our plan of action or “roadmap” is presently being refined and will soon be made available for public consultation on the Lighting Africa website. As part of this initial effort, and in order to develop an early assessment of the current quality of different types of products in the market, Lighting Africa will select ten models of solar lanterns for testing, based on the specification PVGAP PVRS11A (the specification can be downloaded from http://www.pvgap.org). The lanterns will be selected for testing based on their volume of sales and relative performance. Lanterns that pass the tests may be eligible to receive the PVGAP Quality Mark issued by IECEE. Companies interested in having their lanterns tested at no cost, should submit their expression of interest along with the performance specification of their lantern, information on current volume of sales, and contact information to Peter Varadi, PVGAP (pvaradi@aol.com). Other activities related to product quality assurance will be made public as this effort advances. For more information, visit http://lightingafrica.org.

Lighting Africa advances effort to generate carbon credits from off-grid lighting solutions. On October 8-9, 2007 in Ethiopia, the Lighting Africa team participated in a workshop on carbon credits for off-grid lighting with individuals from 10 African nations, representatives from African governments, the private sector, bilateral donors, and NGOs. The workshop examined approaches for streamlining greenhouse gas emission reduction credits for off-grid lighting technologies that displace fossil-fuel based options-kerosene, candles, biomass, etc. Lighting Africa is currently evaluating opportunities for carbon credits under the new Programmatic Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) methodology, small-scale CDM methodologies, and voluntary carbon markets. Conclusions on the opportunities for carbon credits are expected by the year's end, and findings will be made public to all participating organizations.

Lighting Africa starts market research effort. Lighting Africa retained Research International (http://www.research-int.com), a leading global market research agency, to conduct a comprehensive market research across several African countries on end-users needs concerning lighting, beginning with an assessment of two key segments - households and micro businesses. This first-class market research will provide participating companies with unique insights on end-users needs, light and product design preferences, price points, and other economic, design attribute and behavioral information that will inform participating companies' products and market entry strategies. The market research questionnaire will be made available for public comments and feedback during the month of November, and findings will be shared during the first months of 2008.