EASE News and current activities

EASE Partner Meeting Tanzania
In November 2008 the EASE partners held a successful one-week meeting, hosted by the TaTEDO Northern Zone Office in Moshi. NGO partners from Bolivia, Cambodia, Loa PDR, Vietnam, Senegal, Mali, Tanzania and Uganda were present, as well as several partner companies. The first part of the meeting was used to share experiences and best practices and present the plans for the future. The second part was filled with exchanging views on networking and sharing with the network, and a field visit to TaTEDO project sites in Kilimanjaro region.

The meeting discussed the challenge how to work with companies in a demand driven way, and the dilemma whether upscaling energy markets demands growth of NGOs or a changing role. The partners concluded to put priority on the need to build the capacity of NGOs to provide modern business development support and increased focus on sharing lessons learned through thematic platforms. New exchanges were planned on solar drying and on portable cook stoves.

SESA partnership
In July 2008, Philips and DGIS have entered into a partnership to promote lighting solutions for the poor in Africa. EASE is supporting test marketing in Tanzania (cookstoves) and Uganda (lighting).
Philips website>>

Yearplan 2009
The third yearplan of the EASE program has been finalized in November 2008. The program has funding available for innovation projects and capacity building in the fields of:

• Access: development of sustainable rural energy market channels;
• Control:  design rural energy markets based on the realities, needs and power of the end-user and the local market players;
• Sharing: present the findings and experiences in the field in an explicit way.

New EASE colleagues
In January 2009 Tamara Flink joined the EASE team in the Netherlands. Tamara has a background in social geography and GIS speaks excellent English, Spanish and French. Unfortunately Maaike Snel left ETC to work for SenterNovem, and René Magermans moved to Fairmatch support BV.

The EASE/LIRE team in Loas that is implementing a pico-hydro innovation and capacity building program has welcomed two new members: Thongsanti Vongsaly as project manager and Sopha Soulineyadeth as project employee providing the necessary engineering background. Website: http://www.lao-ire.org/en (LIRE - the Loa Institute for Renewable Energy).

Daey Ouwens Fund for Small-scale renewable energy projects
This is a new funding window for small-scale energy projects. The fund, managed by SenterNovem, aims to provide more people in LDCs with access to energy by promoting small-scale projects in the area of renewable and job-creating forms of energy supply. The minimum subsidy for each project is EUR 100,000 and the maximum is EUR 2.5 million. The maximum subsidy that parties may receive is 50% of the incurred costs. The first tender for the fund has closed. The second and last call is expected to be published in the beginning of March 2009. Read more.

EASE Photoexhibition
Interested in the energy reality of poor rural people in Africa, Latin America and Asia? Visit the traveling photo exhibition Access to Energy, and learn more about energy situations, problems and solutions of the rural population in Vietnam, Tanzania and Bolivia.

The photo exhibition has been with TU/D, Senter-Novem, Imtech, VEMW, Philips, Essent Den Bosch and Essent Groningen. If you are interested to host the exposition as well in your organisation, please contact us at ease@etcnl.nl.

Rural electrification planning in Cambodia and Laos
In 2007-2009, EASE is exploring the rural electrification sector in Cambodia and Laos in the framework of the CAP-REDEO project.

This project introduces a new approach to rural electrification planning, in which rural electrification is focused on development poles, in which it would provide maximum added value to economic development, education, and health care.

On the one hand the project consists of a GIS based planning tool (coordinated by IED), on the other of actor based planning development of a pro-poor investment portfolio.

Specific attention is given to decentralised energy options, such as Rural energy enterprisese in Cambodia and biomass gasification in Laos.
Project website>>