Clean energy SMEs connecting off-grid communites are starved of funding

(The Guardian, 9 Jul 2014) Research shows SMEs working to fulfill the energy needs of the 1.3 billion people who live off the grid, are finding investment hard to secure.

There's a growing buzz about the potential for business to fill the huge energy gap across the developing world, where 1.3 billion people live without grid electricity and a staggering 3 billion people cook on open fires or dirty cookstoves.

Pioneering small and medium-sized energy enterprises, that sell simple products like solar lanterns and cleaner cookstoves to low-income communities, are offering new hope that this huge global problem could one day be solved.

But research published by sustainable energy charity Ashden and Christian Aid shows that many of these clean energy enterprises are starved of funding to help them get their innovative businesses off the ground, and to enable them to grow fast enough to reach the scale that's needed.

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The Guardian, 9 Jul 2014: Clean energy SMEs connecting off-grid communites are starved of funding