Bioenergy for sustainable energy access in Africa (BSEAA2)

Bioenergy for sustainable energy access in Africa (BSEAA2) LTS International in partnership with Aston University, E4Tech (UK) and Aiguasol (Spain) have been appointed by Carbon Trust to carry out a two-year research for the second phase of the Bio-energy for Sustainable local Energy Services and Energy Access in Africa (BSEAA) programme, a constituent programme of the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) Transforming Energy Access (TEA) programme. This research follows a Phase 1 scoping study carried out during 2016 and 2017. It focuses on ten Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries in West, East and Southern Africa.1 BSEAA2 is targeted at bio-energy (biomass energy) entrepreneurs (particularly technology and project developers), investors and policy makers, to examine the commercial viability of bio-energy technologies in SSA. The Project will work closely with participants and partners engaged with the TEA Programme, Energy Catalyst, Innovate UK and others who are either already active in SSA, or are interested in becoming active in SSA in the bio-energy field. The research will have a practical focus. It is designed to lead to development of practical resources and tools that will assist industry and investors to assess the feasibility, use and applications of bio-energy technologies. The research will focus on commercially trialed and mature bio-energy technologies (Technology Readiness/TR Level 5+) in the small-to-medium scale (10 kWe to 5 MWe) range suitable for commercial and productive uses of energy. The BSEAA2 team is seeking to engage with developers, investors and policymakers to identify key challenges in bringing bio-energy technology and projects to SSA markets. The project aims to assess the suitability of promising bioenergy pathways, “sweet spot” regions in SSA for in-depth research and analysis, and help identify key actions required to make these commercial realities.