Stories – 22 Aug 2025 – Just outside the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, where Burkina Faso’s lush southern expanses begin to give way to the sands of the Sahara Desert, is the Kodéni solar plant. Row after row of solar panels sit amid intermittent shrubs, channeling at their peak 38 megawatts of clean, inexpensive, electricity into Burkina Faso’s national grid. The power is enough to supply 115,000 homes. And it is badly needed. Just one in five Burkinabes have access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency.
The plant, which came online in 2024, was made possible in part by a repayable grant from the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Seed Capital Assistance Facility (SCAF). Since its launch in 2014, the facility has provided development capital to 33 renewable energy projects across Africa. Its funding model – which helps lower risks for private sector investors – could prove pivotal for the future of a continent where electricity remains in short supply, say some.
“Africa has the potential to be a renewable energy powerhouse, holding over 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources but investor jitters have held back development,” said Hongpeng Lei, Chief of UNEP’s Climate Mitigation Branch. “By providing and unlocking capital, SCAF is supporting African nations to leapfrog into a low-carbon energy future that will benefit hundreds of millions of people and help to keep greenhouse gas emissions in check.”
Many African nations are facing a dilemma: increase access to electricity – which around 600 million people on the continent currently lack – while ensuring their greenhouse gas emissions do not explode, worsening the climate crisis that has hit the continent hard.
Africa is home to vast renewable energy sources – solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal. Many of those sources remain untapped, with the continent attracting only 3 per cent of global energy investment.
SCAF is designed to unlock private investment for early-stage clean energy projects in frontier markets. It is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Managed by UNEP and the Frankfurt School, SCAF supports private investors in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
By providing both non-reimbursable grants and larger grants that are repayable once the project reaches financial close, SCAF enables renewable energy companies to enter markets that have been unable to attract capital due to a perception of high risk.
So far, nine supported projects have reached financial close in Africa and Asia. Research conducted by SCAF has found every dollar invested has unlocked US$88 in private finance. These projects are not only improving access to energy; they are delivering broader benefits for community development and resilience, including new jobs, says Lei.
At a global level, the projects are contributing to the goal of tripling renewables by 2030, which is necessary to meet international climate targets. Once all projects that have received repayable grants are operational, they are expected to have 3,573 megawatts of generation capacity. They’re also slated to employ 26,000 people while preventing the release of 6.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – equivalent to taking 1.5 million cars off the road.
The facility backed the Golomoti solar plant southeast of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. This 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic project includes a battery storage system. It has reduced dependence on increasingly unreliable hydro and diesel power, which are vulnerable to climate-related water shortages.
The project also funds boreholes in rural areas to improve access to clean water and reduce the burden on women, who are typically responsible for collecting water.
“Before… I had to travel long distances to fetch water,” said Chisomo Lubaini, who helps manage a borehole drilled by Golomoti solar. “Having access to clean water … I can use the water for my brick-making business and the time I save can be used for farming.”
In Zimbabwe, SCAF supported a five-megawatt, run-of-the-river hydro plant adjacent to Lake Mutirikwi in Masvingo province. The project, known as the Great Zimbabwe Hydro Power Plant, relies on the country’s first non-consumptive water license, meaning it must return all the water it uses in power generation. Lei says the plant, which came online in 2024, could open the door to many other such projects.
The SCAF’s mandate extends through 2026. UNEP is in discussions with donors to launch the next iteration of the facility, which officials hope will continue to support clean energy projects where they are needed the most.
“As African nations prepare to put forward their next round national climate plans and gather at the next Africa Climate Summit, initiatives like SCAF show that ambition can be matched with action,” says Lei.
UNEP’s work is made possible by flexible contributions from Member States and other partners to the Environment Fund and UNEP’s Climate, Nature and Pollution funds. These funds enable agile, innovative solutions to climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Learn how to support UNEP to invest in people and planet.
The Sectoral Solution to the climate crisis
UNEP is at the forefront of supporting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed the Sectoral Solutions, a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. Key sectors identified are: energy; industry; agriculture and food; forests and land use; transport; and buildings and cities.
About the Seed Capital Assistance Facility
The Seed Capital Assistance Facility is designed to help renewable energy equity investment entity managers and development companies mitigate the risks associated with early-stage project development, accelerate and scale up deployment, and increase early-stage private sector investment and the number of renewable energy actors. SCAF is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
Source – UNEP
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