Clean Energy

Globally, more than 1 billion people lack access to energy. Pact collaborates with governments, companies, investors, and communities to connect supply and demand for energy, remove market distortions, and work toward a future in which all people have the skills and resources they need to enjoy the many benefits of clean, modern energy.

From community mini grids to commercial and industrial solar, we’re advancing reliable, renewable solutions that are safer, cheaper, and cleaner than typical alternatives such as wood, kerosene, and diesel. With increasing access to energy, the communities we serve are launching and expanding businesses, receiving improved healthcare, accessing new markets, and expanding educational opportunities.

Expanding access to clean energy and the economic opportunities that follow are a key tool in climate and conflict mitigation. Pact’s clean energy program works in some of the most sensitive and unstable areas, often in the absence of formal governance systems.

OUR EXPERTISE

Pact works to expand access to finance specifically tailored to the unique challenges consumers, small businesses, and commercial banks have within the energy sector. Pact provides loans to small businesses for procurement of productive use equipment. Pact also provides an array of technical assistance, project preparation and transaction support to project developers, commercial banks, governments, and multi-lateral financial institutions for raising equity and debt financing, and to de-risk project development through loan guarantees and other mechanisms.

A pioneer and innovator in what is now among the most critical disciplines in international development, Pact has been strengthening groups and communities around the world for more than 40 years. Within the clean energy sector, Pact develops the capacity of financial institutions to  offer competitive and timely loan services for renewable energy solutions. We develop the capacity of small businesses and community groups to participate in electrification projects and benefit economically once they gain access to clean energy. And we develop the capacity of engineering, procurement and construction companies to adhere to international standards for clean energy infrastructure. 

Recognizing the need for broader systems strengthening, Pact also works to improve the enabling environment for expanding access to energy by providing business intelligence tools and products, organizing learning events, and contributing to the formulation of new policies for the development and integration of distributed energy resources.

OUR IMPACT

• Smart Power Myanmar mobilized over $34 million in financing for distributed renewable energy solutions, enabling 77,275  last-mile on- and off-grid connections, impacting more than 370,000 lives.
• Through the USAID Kizazi Kipya project in Tanzania, Pact partnered with four private companies and 26 civil societies organizations in 26 councils to implement a solar home system workforce development program. Pact and its partners recruited 153 sales agents for solar companies, who each earned an average additional income of $100 per month.
• Through the Productive Use and Demand Stimulation project, Pact supported 80 Nigerian micro-enterprises to receive productive equipment loans and connect to mini-grids. We trained 124 micro-enterprises on economics of productive use, business skills and financial literacy, with 70% of these recording a 60%-plus increase in income as a result.
• Smart Power Myanmar has provided technical assistance to local banks; engineering, procurement, and construction companies; and industrial SMEs for the funding and design of rooftop solar systems. To date, through loan guarantees, SPM has leveraged $6.6 million to support 81 SMEs, installing 5.81 MW of clean energy capacity, securing jobs for over 3,600 people.