20th January, 2022: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Energy and Livelihoods for Communities (E-LICO) Foundation, has launched its innovative smart energy solution project that is set to improve the lives of hundreds in rural Tanzania.
The project, Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA), is a multi-partner, multi-country project that aims to course out modern energy technologies, particularly productive uses of energy (PUE) with a focus on applicability, replicability and affordability, to generate social economic opportunities for Tanzanians and Africans in general.
Through the SESA project, ELICO will contribute in regional training and capacity building, co-develop circular economy living labs and pilot new business models for solar off grid solutions to stimulate productive uses of energy. Apart from that, the Foundation will work on replicating renewable energy solutions, and document access to finance mechanisms, payment systems including but not limited to PAYGO, and supply chain dynamics including localization of operations and maintenance in the target communities in Tanzania.
These solutions include solar powered cold chain applications, mobile solar water pumps for irrigation, solar powered pottery wheels, mobile solar generators for commercial use in market centres, and InfoSpots deployed at the selected community centres to provide free access to information, including the use of energy and business opportunities.
“These solutions are highly needed in Tanzania right now as we strive to improve food production, create more employment opportunities among the youth and support the shift from the linear economy to circular economy…which are key in achieving the national development goals as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” says Mr. Sisty Basil, the Executive Director at ELICO
ELICO Foundation is part of an innovative global coalition of partners implementing this project funded by the EU and Horizon 2020, to the tune of US$ 11 million. The project, which runs for four years, has been formally launched following intricate preparations with multiple partners from Africa and Europe.
“This project is expected to help us explore more wider and inclusive solutions…complimenting what we have been doing in Iringa and Dodoma regions where we have been working with rural smallholder farmers to create solar applications for irrigation with innovative designs for movability, ease of access to the technologies, and commercial viability” says Mr. Basil
Over the years, ELICO has worked with partners to co-develop PUE and modern energy access solutions with energy-poor communities, in especially, rural areas. As such, ELICO already has various Innovations that require capital and have remained under-resourced to test out and get ready for mass replication. The SESA project offers this much-needed capital and designs pathways for scale and commercialization.
These Innovations go a long way in integrating the use of Energy Services into economic activities which improve the livelihoods of the Rural poor by creating jobs, improving productivity and easing drudgery involved in making a living.
About ELICO Foundation
ELICO is a non-profit organization established in Tanzania (reg. no.00NGO/R/0218) with the main goal of accelerating access to modern energy and energy services for socio-economic development of rural and last mile areas in Africa. Most of our current interventions are solar based and are being co-developed with the user communities. They include solar-powered water pumping for irrigation by rural smallholder farmers, solar-powered refrigeration for fresh produce by smallholder farmers and artisanal fisher communities, green mini-grids with a focus on productive uses, solar microgrid for remote health facilities with a focus on powering laboratory equipments and refrigerator for vaccines storage and other life saving medicines and other solar related productive uses of renewable energy such as rice milling as well as pottery wheels, ELICO recognizes that until and unless we avail energy for productive uses in rural Tanzania, the level of prosperity in the country will remain limited. We are clear that we must deliver Sustainable Energy for all Tanzanians, more rapidly for those living in rural areas where poverty incidence is highest. For more information please visit www.elicofoundation.org
Contact details
For questions or more details please contact:
Sisty Basil, Executive Director of ELICO Foundation
Mobile: +255 787 252585
