By Dipo Olowookere
Access Power, a developer, owner and operator of power projects in emerging markets and a Power Africa partner, today announced the launch of ACF 2017, the third edition of the highly successful funding and support platform for renewable energy projects in Africa.
The official opening of the submissions process was announced today at the Power Africa Annual Partners Meeting in Washington.
Now in its third year, the ACF is an innovative $7 million financial support mechanism designed to provide local power project developers and originators with project development support, technical experience, expertise and funding required to bring their renewable energy projects to life.
ACF 2017 aims to further build on the success of the previous two years where a total of five projects passed the final round of selection and three projects successfully executed joint development agreements with Access Power. This year’s finalists will once again be evaluated and scored by an independent panel of industry experts comprised of senior representatives from Power Africa, InfraCo Africa, Proparco, the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and Access Power who will provide Access Power with recommendations on the commercial, technical, social and environmental viability of each project based on a host of market, regulatory, environmental and economic factors.
The winners of ACF 2017 will be announced during a live final evaluation panel on June 7, 2017 during the Africa Energy Forum in Copenhagen.
The top three finalists will subsequently enter into direct Joint Development Agreement (JDA) discussions with Access Power.
Once these are successfully concluded, Access Power will take an equity stake in those projects and commence independently funding their third-party development costs such as feasibility studies, grid studies, environmental and social impact assessments and due diligence fees
Reda El Chaar, Executive Chairman, Access Power commented, “As a Power Africa partner ACF will draw on a wider communication platform – enabling us to reach a bigger network of innovative and pioneering entrepreneurs across Africa with the opportunity to develop their ambitious ideas into tangible projects.”
“Last year was another highly successful year for the competition as we received nearly 100 submissions from over 25 countries across the full spectrum of renewable technologies, a 75 percent increase on the previous edition. This is a chance to shine a spotlight on ideas and showcase talent. We are delighted to see the competition develop as word spreads about the possibilities it can bring.”
Power Africa is a U.S. government-led initiative coordinating 12 U.S. government agencies and a diverse coalition of more than 140 public and private sector partners, including bilateral and multilateral development partners.
Power Africa Coordinator Andrew Herscowitz stated, “The ACF is an exciting concept, and we are delighted to see Access Power’s efforts to transform power delivery and access across Africa. The ACF demonstrates how Power Africa’s private sector partners are working to help accelerate progress towards our shared goals of increasing new electricity generation capacity and increasing household and business connections in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
The ACF 2017 application form and guidelines are available on Access Power website www.Access-Power.com
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya