Innovations in Pacific Island Countries-based projects next focus for Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities (PREO) grant funding.

Community-level innovation in renewable energy is increasingly important in the Pacific. The UK’s partnership with Pacific large ocean states to decarbonise and build resilience against climate change will be energised by a new round of support available to projects in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

Proposals should be innovative and be based on productive use of renewable energy (PURE) business models. Multiple sectors are eligible including solar water pumping for irrigation, cold storage for food, agro processing of crops (e.g. milling, drying, oil press), electric mobility for taxi drivers and fishing boats.

Proposals should also:

• Be locally-led, or have a local partner in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, or Vanuatu.

• Ideally be catalytic, scalable and attract additional finance from other sources

• Seek to use this funding towards capital costs of investment, operational expenses, capacity building or IT systems.

Interested innovators should download the full application pack here: https://www.preo.org.

British High Commissioner to Samoa, Mr. Gareth Hoar said: –

“This support is an opportunity for innovators and entrepreneurs in Samoa and across the Pacific Island Countries who want to tackle climate change by improving the way we use energy in our every-day lives. The green transition is hugely important for energy security, supporting sustainable livelihoods and keeping within the 1.5° limit. I’m excited that the UK is able to contribute to Samoa’s economic resilience and stimulate innovation in this way”.

The open call marks the first expansion of PREO beyond sub-Saharan Africa, widening its focus to include Pacific Island Countries-focused projects.

Since 2019, PREO has been supported by the UK and the IKEA Foundation via the Transforming Energy Access platform and delivered by the Carbon Trust and Mercy Corps Energy 4 Impact. Over £7m has been dedicated for catalytic grants over next four years to support innovative, renewable energy-based projects, working to improve incomes, build climate resilience and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Up to eight projects will be selected in this round to receive funding of between £50,000-£200,000 per project.

An example of PREO’s impact is Ashden Award-winning enterprise SokoFresh, which provides farm level cold storage-as-a-service, coupled with a digital access-to-market platform to integrate small and medium scale farmers into commercial-scale supply chains.

PREO funded SokoFresh’s first two cold hubs for horticulture, and subsequent expansion into fishing. The Kenyan company has demonstrated a 27% reduction in post-harvest losses and generated 13 jobs as a result of this project.

ENDS.

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