13 March 2024: ZE-Gen continues to scale towards target to mobilise £100m
Fossil fuel generator displacement initiative, ZE-Gen, is to receive more than €11m in additional funding to support its work to improve the lives of people across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region by replacing highly polluting fossil fuel generators (FFGs) with renewable energy-based alternatives.
This latest funding, announced today (13/03/25) at the Sustainable Energy for All Global Forum in Barbados, comes from IKEA Foundation. It marks a significant milestone towards ZE-Gen’s ambition of mobilising more than £100m in new private and public funding to tackle sector barriers and accelerate innovation to build a thriving, competitive market for renewable energy-based alternatives to fossil fuel generators.
Despite being home to two thirds of the world’s population, emerging economies only account for 15% of global clean energy investment – with homes and businesses facing frequent blackouts that can last for weeks at a time, negatively impacting daily lives and business income.
Launched in 2022 at COP27 with initial funding from UK aid through the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund, ZE-Gen has, to date, supported more than 25 renewable energy projects across Nigeria, the Philippines, Cote d’Ivoire and Fiji. These projects are designed to overcome social and economic barriers to the development and uptake of renewable energy-based alternatives to fossil fuel generators, by creating location-specific solutions.
This latest funding from the IKEA Foundation will enable ZE-Gen to address several key barriers to the uptake of renewable energy. One of the initiatives includes launching specialist awareness-raising programmes likely to target a few locations within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, to increase public understanding of the benefits of renewable energy-based alternatives to fossil fuel generators.
ZE-Gen will also use £5.1m of the funding to support a ground-breaking financial initiative – the Green Genset Facility (GGF). This initiative aims to increase the amount of high-quality solar energy stock available for wholesale distribution, to make it cheaper and simpler for people to buy renewable energy alternatives to FFGs. This will bring an injection of working capital into the market and break down traditional barriers to financing stock, such as lack of track record, complex due diligence and high finance costs.
Localised approaches to innovation are central to this next phase of ZE-Gen, including bringing in knowledge and insights from expert local partners and a culturally informed, context-specific and sustainable approach that effectively meets the needs of the target populations.
Lily Beadle, ZE-Gen lead at the Carbon Trust said:
“The world is entering the Age of Electricity and today’s announcement of €11 million new funding from Ikea Foundation is testament to the transformative work that ZE-Gen is already doing to open opportunities to advance locally relevant, renewable energy solutions in emerging economies.
This funding will help increase access to reliable and affordable renewable energy-based solutions in place of fossil fuel generators. Growing consumer engagement, improving financing for distributors and ensuring lifecycle circularity to avoid waste is part of ZE-Gen’s work to collectively address barriers to accelerate the uptake of renewable energy, to benefit health, the environment and economic development.”
Richa Goyal, Programme Manager, IKEA Foundation
“Creating a better everyday life for people and taking action on climate change are key parts of our work. We are excited to advance this commitment through our support for ZE-Gen. By working in partnership to replace thousands of polluting and expensive fossil fuel generators, we know our funding will have a real-world impact by improving lives and reducing emissions. Fossil fuel generators continue to hinder progress toward national decarbonisation goals in many countries. This funding marks a critical step in harnessing advances in solar and energy storage technologies as viable replacements.”
It is estimated that 25 million, highly polluting, fossil fuel generators are in use across emerging economies, resulting in huge financial, social and environmental costs. Associated health risks include premature death, lung cancer, hearing impairment and numerous other problems. High CO2 emissions can also hold back countries’ efforts to meet their climate goals, and the high running costs of fossil fuel generators can reduce finance available for business, healthcare and education.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Background Information: ZE-Gen
ZE-Gen is a collaborative initiative by the Carbon Trust and Innovate UK, with support from the IKEA Foundation and UK aid through the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund. ZE-Gen is designed to tackle barriers, accelerate innovation and fund activities to build a thriving, competitive market for renewable alternatives to fossil-fuelled generators. Launched at COP27 with an initial commitment of over £15 million and an ambition to mobilise £100 million.