The two-day workshop – which was realised with WISIONS’s financial support - was divided in two parts, both with a very interactive approach to ensure peer-to-peer learning and networking among the participants – who ranged from practitioners to start-ups and international finance experts. The overall idea and aim was to contribute to a “demystification of financier’s approaches” and foster interaction.
Main emphasis of day one was on the training of about 40 energy practitioners to increase their financial literacy, optimise their cash flow management and understand pros and cons of different financing models. Participants were enthusiastic and described the course as “this was like a one-day MBA and an eye-opener”, helping to develop a more realistic pitch for their approaches.
In cooperation with ANDE – the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs – Nexus for development gathered on the second day about 100 people, next to the energy practitioners also investors and intermediaries that intend to bridge the often applied communication gaps between the worlds of finance and social entrepreneurs.
For WISIONS’s team – who attended as well - it was fascinating to see how these people from completely different backgrounds animated and supported each other during the several interactive sessions.
What was more, the Finance Solutions Map of Nexus was launched, which provides an overview of 100+ financial schemes dedicated to clean energy, water, and sanitation entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia and presents publicly available information on a range of finance solutions.

Access the Finance Solutions Map here!

After months of research and dialogue with various partners, Nexus developed this online tool. Entrepreneurs can use the filter function to identify potential funding. The Map is complemented by additional resources also available on the Nexus website.

A list of 14 financial and non-financial tools utilised to scale enterprises in these sectors are accompanied by their definition. Potential challenges and benefits are included to highlight the financier and entrepreneur perspective. To further promote mutual understanding and the replication of successful financial products, Nexus has also produced case studies. These offer an overview of the financial scheme with a focus on learnings, impact measurement and risk mitigation.

Read/download Nexus' report here: Leveraging Innovative Finance Together – Workshop Report

More information about this SEPS Exchange Activity: Demand-Side Solutions to Financing Sustainable Energy in Southeast Asia

And on Nexus LIFT side: https://nexusfordevelopment.org/lift/

Watch the recording on Youtube here!

Renewable energy mini-grids are a cost-effective and reliable solution for energy access. Within the technologies available for mini-grids, micro and mini hydropower has added advantages. Its techno-economic characteristics, such as lower levelised cost of electricity, per kilowatt cost, and no need for battery storage, make it economically viable for grid interconnection and productive end use applications.

Micro and mini hydropower (MHP) implementation involves technical expertise in hydrology, civil works, electro-mechanical, electrical, and electronics. Thanks to the pioneers of knowledge transfer for small-scale hydropower, comprehensive and frequent training was made available in the 1990s to practitioners in the global south. While such training is rare in the present-day scenario, the earlier efforts led to the creation of local experts who have since established local training centers. The Southeast Asia region particularly benefits from micro hydropower training centers.

This webinar – the first in a series of four webinars – will feature the following training centers that provide local capacity building for the development, operation, and maintenance of community-based micro hydro projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines:

• Tonibung Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology (CREATE), Malaysia
• ASEAN Hydropower Competence Centre (HYCOM), Indonesia
• SIBAT Center for RE and Appropriate Technology (CREATech), Philippines

The conference will take place on 19 March 2019 at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Main objectives include:

• The presentation and discussion of project results
• The introduction of available solutions for sustainable thermal energy generation and production of biomass fuels through round table discussions with international professionals of the sector
• Networking between garment factory representatives, rice millers, investors, and other professionals of the biogas sector
  

Project Background: During the last decade, Cambodia has achieved an average GDP growth of 8%. This growth goes with a surge in energy demand, reached through primary solid biomass, which provides approximately 64% of the final energy demand. Although household cooking still drives most of this demand, forest wood demand from industries is on the rise, driven by urbanisation and industrialisation with the development of energy-intensive industries such as garment and bricks.

In this context, GERES with the support of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA), has first studied the potential of agricultural residues to replace unsustainable firewood in the manufacturing sector. In a second phase, with the support of CCCA, H&M Group and the WISIONS Initiative, GERES has worked closely with Cambodian garment factories and rice millers to support the emergence of a supply of a sustainable biomass fuels aimed at the garment sector for their thermal energy needs.

More general information on this SEPS project: Supporting the Energy Switch of the Garment Industry in Cambodia through Increased South-South Knowledge Exchange among the Value Chain Stakeholders