Despite its potential, Malawi's Mini-grid market remains in its infancy, facing barriers to realising full impact. These include, most notably, accurately forecasting Average Revenue per User (ARPU) and Average Weekly Time of Power (AWTP) when assessing potential locations, and initial low energy demand during evening hours, increasing battery storage costs. Building upon existing hardware and software developed by CREATIVenergie during Energy Catalyst 7, our approach stimulates impactful community demand for energy by integrating portable small-scale productive applications into a rental model that incorporates pay-per-use battery swapping, simultaneously generating local data on ARPU and AWTP to support accurate load projection analysis and de-risk prospective minigrid investments. To sustain operations, we will employ a two-tier 'franchisor-franchisee' model. As franchisors, Challenges Catalyst will partner with local aspiring mini-grid developers (MGDs) to act as 'franchisees', procure hub equipment, manage branding and set quality standards. Franchisees will own and operate the pay per use battery swap and PUE model, collecting ARPU and AWTP data and acting not only as the frontline for customer interactions, but also as community advocates for present and future energy needs. Guided by Malawi's Integrated Energy Plan, we will target communities where minigrids have been identified as the preferred electrification option. As we expand, we will also target more remote off-grid communities, inclusively recruiting and training local franchisees. This project includes the following key work packages: \* Hardware and software development involves updating electronics hardware design, software design, casing design, prototyping, and testing for battery rental and management. \* During the demonstrator implementation phase, tasks include installation, manufacturing hardware for trials, deploying and commissioning hubs, commissioning portable productive loads, installing communication systems, conducting trials, and data collection. Ongoing operation, maintenance, and data collection are also part of this phase. \* Commercial implementation involves conducting baseline community and energy needs assessments, establishing franchisee relationships with MGDs for franchised hubs, providing commercial and franchisee training, mentoring, community marketing, implementing the hub model, and monitoring and evaluating hub performance. \* The project focuses on MGD and government engagement, including convening a stakeholder technical advisory board, assessing data needs, developing an MGD value proposition, and establishing a complementary go-to-market strategy. \* Franchise model development activities include establishing a franchise structure and legal framework, designing the franchisor business and revenue model, codifying operations and quality systems, optimising franchisee training and support programs, developing a marketing and branding strategy. \* The development of a comprehensive business and financial plan.

African Clean Energy (ACE), in collaboration with The Challenges Group, seek to establish a scalable, decentralised and digitised distribution model for transitioning households from harmful charcoal usage to sustainable local fuel options. ACE has demonstrable demand for its sustainable briquettes, however, the existing method of ordering and delivering fuels through local agents becomes impractical and unsustainable as ACE expands its geographical market penetration. This project will demonstrate the advantages of developing an inclusive approach to reconfiguring and incentivising Uganda's current physical infrastructure -- including local retailers serving as satellite suppliers, and motorcycle riders -- to promote efficient and cost effective decentralised last-mile delivery. By then overlaying this infrastructure with a digital framework, the approach will enhance access to affordable sustainable cooking options. This will, in large part, be accomplished by further enhancing ACE's proprietary app, ACE Connect. The project's innovativeness revolves around the following three components: 1\. Digital Technology: Inspired by companies like Jumia Foods, ACE will utilise digital technology to engage and incentivise decentralised distribution value chain players and drive the transition to sustainable energy. 2\. Hybrid Finance Model: ACE will implement a hybrid finance model that utilizes measured carbon offset revenue and scalable digital systems. By utilising digital tools to measure, collect, and monetise impact data, the project aims to disrupt existing practices by introducing positive incentives and commercial operations that consider both the "ability to pay" of end consumers and the "willingness to pay" of Carbon Offset Buyers.This approach aims to alleviate the financial burden on the poorest households while ensuring their active engagement in the project. 3\. Value Chain Replication: The project will ensure replication the innovative decentralised and digitised value chain approach in different contexts (including humanitarian, development and conservation) through partnerships with third parties. This strategy enables scalability and financial viability in multiple locations, promoting sustainable growth. Given 92% of energy consumed in Uganda comes from biomass, primarily charcoal, used for home cooking, this project is extremely timely. Uganda has experienced a significant loss in tree cover due to charcoal production, prompting recent executive orders to ban charcoal production in Northern Uganda. ACE's responsible approach to catalysing a just transition from the charcoal value chain will have a lasting impact on affordable, reliable and low carbon energy access in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

Floating across rivers and streams to generate affordable, accessible renewable energy with less damage to the local ecosystem, HydroWheel is the world's first inflatable waterwheel. It emphasises lower costs, durability, easy installation and continuous power production. The innovation's commercial and impact potential in sub-Saharan Africa is further enhanced by the region's abundant hydro resources, where the installed capacity is estimated at 30.4 GW; 300 GW potential remains untapped. The deployment of off-grid renewable energy systems is a cost-effective solution expected to contribute significantly to satisfying power needs, driving economic growth and industrialisation and reducing poverty throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This project will determine how HydroWheel can commercialise and optimise the design of its innovation to provide an alternative (or complementary) technology to incumbent renewable energy technologies (including conventional pico-hydro, solar PV, diesel generators) and ultimately satisfy the electricity needs of under-served communities throughout SSA (starting with Uganda). This project is particularly determined to understand, test and ultimately sell to market segments that promote the productive use of electricity, further catalysing economic development, employment creation and productivity enhancements in rural areas. Hydrowheel Ltd will: hone the design of the waterwheel, optimising the waterwheel pockets (paddles) and examining their suitability for manufacture in small textile workshops in sub-Saharan Africa; optimising specification and sourcing suitable generators and gearboxes in conjunction with an experienced waterwheel manufacturer; and running a small-scale trial and then larger trial in Knoydart, Scotland. CREEC will be responsible for the Pilot Project Development phase in Uganda that involves literature review, community engagement (initial consultation and surveys of local communities), future project scoping, initial location screening, designing a pilot project and conducting technical field studies and finally conducting environmental and social impact assessments. MicroGen will use its "ISMO" GIS tool to survey river valleys in the target areas, identifying sites which conform to the project's definition of 'potential' and provide market and industry knowledge to support business plan development, and to facilitate research. Challenges Catalyst and Challenges Uganda will support HydroWheel to create a viable commercialisation strategy to exploit the innovation. This will include key activities such as market sizing of beachhead market; micro-segmentation and development of relationships with key customers; identifying in-country value chain integration and creation opportunities; business and financial modelling and route to market strategising.

**Improving Affordability and Reliability of Energy Access in Uganda with River Turbines** This study will show how novel hydro-kinetic river turbines can be a valuable addition to the portfolio of solutions that can be used to accelerate energy access and improve the quality of life for poor, rural communities in Uganda. The emergence of small, efficient, free-stream, hydro-kinetic turbines capable of economically generating electricity from the speed of fast-flowing water is a new development. It uses technology transferred from the offshore tidal energy sector, in which the UK has been a world-leader since it began, about twenty years ago. Hydro-kinetic technology is fundamentally different to conventional hydropower that extracts energy from rivers as they drop through a height, or 'head'. Conventional hydropower is cost effective and reliable at a large scale supplying power to national grids. But these enormous projects often fail to connect poor communities who are either 'beyond', or 'beneath' the grid. Hydro-kinetic turbines that are easily deployed without civil engineering works can offer affordable, reliable power to those who might otherwise be left behind. The consortium who will deliver this feasibility study brings together Kinetic Hydro, a UK SME developing the turbine technology, Practical Action, a charity with over thirty years' experience working in Sub Saharan Africa, the Challenges Group, a business development agency supporting social enterprises, and the University of Leicester, who have an established capability in assessing hydropower potential using satellite data. Uganda will be used as a case study to assess the feasibility of hydro-kinetic river turbines contributing to the acceleration of energy access provision. The country has opportunities and barriers to success that will be representative of (but not the same as) others in sub-Saharan Africa. It has low, but accelerating access to electricity, a poor and widely dispersed rural population, and a network of rivers suited to hydro-kinetic turbines. Women and marginalised groups in rural areas have disproportionately poorer energy access, as well as limited control over productive resources. Basic tasks such as collecting water, fuel and fodder consume many hours a day. Energy access can be transformative if it can used to free up time spent on chores so that it can be used for income generating activities. This project will therefore research how to deliver sustainable and impactful development projects based on hydro-kinetic turbines for the children, women and men living in Ugandan communities near to suitable rivers.

SolarisKit is developing a new, lower cost, flat-packable solar thermal collector to the sub-Saharan market. Our collector will provide a more affordable method to provide clean hot water to homes, business (e.g. hotels) and industry. This project focuses on developing the collector for pilot trials in Rwanda. We will be targeting the installation of up to 100 collectors for a range of applications including domestic and commercial.

There has been significant investment into solar panels and biogas digesters within Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the poorest members of off-grid communities remain unable to afford these assets, and are prohibited from accessing such energy sources, whilst those with assets have an energy supply that exceeds the capacity of their current storage options and/or their own consumption needs. Modifying existing techniques and technologies for combined application in a new context, will create opportunities for business model innovation. This will enable surplus energy generated to be packaged into bitesize amounts for distribution via virtual, rather than physical, grids or transferred to other productive uses. As a result, the Smart Energy Exchange Network (SEEN), will facilitate greater entry level access to low carbon, energy supplies for those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid as well as transformative change at a community level through the provision of new energy services (refrigeration, milling, irrigation).