Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Website: www.africaelectricity.com

Taking place in Johannesburg, international manufacturers, solution providers and suppliers will be able to meet with senior representatives from regional utilities, government agencies and contractors to network and identify opportunities in rapidly growing energy markets including power, water, lighting, renewable and nuclear. At a key period in the growth of this emerging market, Africa Electricity will provide the ideal platform to tap into new projects when the country is investing billions to overhaul its energy sector to meet forecasted demand. PANGEA, as a Sustainable Partner, can offer a number of passes to African delegates. Please contact Annalisa Volse at annalisa@pangealink.org to know more about it.

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Website: http://www.power-nigeria.com/pa/el

Nigeria has large power investment requirements, which the Government is unable to meet on its own. Approximately 40% of Nigeria’s population has access to electricity, and the country’s Vision 20:2020 aims to improve these statistics with plans for facility upgrades, renewable development, power plant build, introduction of transmission lines and distribution facilities. ‘Power Nigeria’ will provide the opportunity for local and international companies to network and open sales avenues to ultimately lead to development and investment in the region both with usual methods but also via renewable energy and sustainable measures. The show will cover all sectors of the energy industry, such as power generation, transmission, distribution and alternative energy. At an exciting time in the country’s development, ‘Power Nigeria’ is bringing international knowledge and products to facilitate the local market’s development for the benefit of its future.

PANGEA, as a Sustainable Partner, can offer a number of passes to African delegates. Please contact Annalisa Volse at annalisa@pangealink.org to know more about it.

Location: Members Salon of the European Parliament

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Access to clean and affordable modern energy is critical to fostering lasting social and economic development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Worldwide, some 2.7 billion people rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, and 1.4 billion –with the majority in Africa and Asia- have no access to electricity, with one billion more having access only to unreliable electricity networks. Not only do women represent 70% of the 1.3 billion people in developing countries living on less than 1 dollar a day, but there is also a gender bias in energy service provision. Women’s energy needs and priorities tend to get marginalised in energy investments and policies. The time spent collecting fuel wood and carrying water deprives women and children of economic and educational opportunities, leading to social disempowerment and health problems. By 2030, household air pollution from biomass use in inefficient stoves is likely to cause over 1.5 million premature deaths every year, over 4,000 per day.

Women in rural sub-Saharan Africa are in strong need of cleaner and efficient cooking fuels and sources of power both for their productive activities and household maintenance. Besides that, it is also important to consider women’s roles as suppliers of energy and also as active entrepreneurs in providing energy services in developing countries.

The purpose of this workshop is to make stakeholders aware of the challenges women in sub-Saharan Africa are facing in terms of energy access at its core and the benefits that clean energy can have on their daily lives, sharing some positive experiences of women using renewable energy in developing countries in order to see how the European institutions can become more engaged to make this happen in a broader scale.

Join PANGEA and ENERGIA to learn more about the importance of renewable energy access for women in developing countries. Please click here for more information.

Henk Joos, CEO of QUINVITA explained that the “financial support of the investors will allow QUINVITA to further develop its proprietary game changing F1 hybrids” and that the “proceeds and industrial knowledge of Group Vanden Avenne Izegem will also allow an aggressive business development of commercial F1 hybrids and the proprietary animal feed technology QUINVITA acquired. The injection of these proprietary QUINVITA technology elements into Jatropha Curcas emerging markets will bring professional jatropha projects faster to a very significant profitability”.

To read the full press release, please click here.

For further information on QUINVITA, see www.quinvita.com or contact:

Henk Joos           + 32 9 395 91 11

Email                     info@quinvita.com

The conference has got off to an excellent start with the following major international microfinance players already supporting the event and committed to looking at ways of working with renewable energy players:

• ARC Finance (Pune – India)
• PlaNet Finance (France)
• Bank of Uganda (Uganda)
• Triodos Facet (The Netherlands)
• Pentax Management Consultancy Services (Ghana)
• Monitor Group (UK)
• AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (Lahore – Pakistan)
• Centre for Inclusive Banking in Africa (South Africa)
• SIDI (France)

Unfortunately, in the last two years, foreign investment into Africa’s bioenergy sector has all but dried up. None of the 118 projects initiated across the continent that PANGEA identified in its foundation report in 2008 have been successfully implemented, and a combination of regulatory uncertainty and media pressure has deflated the wave of enthusiasm initiated by the bioenergy mandates of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive.

In this report, PANGEA has investigated and evaluated the various barriers that currently face potential investors into Africa’s bioenergy sector. With the provision of vast levels of private capital essential if the African Union’s aspired-towards bioenergy production is to be fostered, it is important to evaluate the economic, political, and social obstacles that dissuade would-be investors from financial commitment.

Members Only: Download Report Join PANGEA to download

Exclusive Report: Africa’s Renewable Energy Policies - A Look at Regional Economic Communities

Building upon its existing review of national biofuels policies across Sub-Saharan Africa, PANGEA is shifting attention to the sub-continent’s regional level of governance, and examining the renewable energy policies implemented by its various Regional Economic Communities. Sustainable biofuels production offers African countries the opportunity to increase national energy security, create jobs, and reduce their reliance on imported petroleum; but only if a policy-driven market is in place for industry to produce those biofuels.

Members Only: Download Report Join PANGEA to download

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/mar/06/fossil-fuels-poverty?CMP=twt_gu

http://www.projectgaia.com/blog/2012/03/02/announcement-request-for-expression-of-interest-to-install-a-microdistillery-in-ethiopia-due-march-23/