The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) received a grant from the World Bank towards the  implementation of the Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) program and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

The consulting services (“the Services”) include Market Assessment of Productive Uses of Renewable Energy (PURE).  The  ASCENT program  will complement the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up platform (DARES), which  is an innovative initiative to accelerate the pace of electrification in Africa to achieve universal access by 2030. Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) is the fastest and most cost-effective mechanism to accelerate clean electricity access on the continent. While DRE is now attracting private sector financing, this support is not at the scale that is needed. DARES will work with governments and the private sector to expand DRE investment.

DARES leverages World Bank, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and International Finance Corporation (IFC) expertise to create a joint cross-sectoral approach to develop innovative financial and de-risking instruments to be rolled out at a regional level. The platform also provides significant technical assistance for governments and the private sector and differentiated approaches consistent with unique country contexts and markets. A key goal in this respect is to tackle barriers to private sector participation to give countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the ability to mobilize DRE systems faster, while making them greener, more resilient, and inclusive. DARES has five core areas: 1) mini-grids, 2) off-grid solar markets, 3) systems for schools and health facilities, 4) solar irrigation and cold chain for farmers, and 5) innovative business models to displace diesel generation and improve access reliability.  The assignment is expected to take about 12 months.

OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

There is a need to better understand the expanding range of PURE applications and business models relevant to mini-grid companies, to the off-grid energy sector, and to the small-holder farmers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) they serve. These must be analyzed in terms of market readiness, potential business models, most appropriate financing mechanisms and other support needs. The proposed assignment aims to fill knowledge gaps on current and probable future uses of PURE technology in the Africa East and South (AFE) and Africa West (AFW) regions. The assignment is to identify the major barriers as well as the pre-conditions for success across key building blocks of the enabling environment for PURE markets in the following areas:

• End-users, products, business models, market barriers and solutions in a more in-depth manner than previous PURE market assessments have done;
• Analysis of the most promising technologies and business models, focusing on ‘quick wins’ for mini-grids and off-grid solar – those with the highest potential for broad replication and scale across different end-use cases, value chains, and country contexts.
• In-depth recommendations regarding the interventions needed to enable these technologies and business models to scale – particularly around access to finance, technical assistance, and consumer awareness/support.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment are attached to this Request for Expressions of Interest.