Smart Energy Solutions for Africa

Project Information

SESA

Grant agreement ID: 101037141

DOI

10.3030/101037141

Project closed

EC signature date 30 August 2021

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 30 September 2025

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 10 209 987,50

EU contribution

€ 9 989 133,13

Coordinated by

ICLEI EUROPEAN SECRETARIAT GMBH (ICLEI EUROPASEKRETARIAT GMBH)
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SESA (Smart Energy Solutions for Africa)

Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) is a collaborative project between the European Union and nine African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania ) that aims at providing energy access technologies and business models that are easily replicable and generate local opportunities for economic development and social cohesion in Africa.

Through several local living labs, it is expected to facilitate the co-development of scalable and replicable energy access innovations, to be tested, validated, and later replicated throughout the African continent.

These solutions will include decentralised renewables (solar photovoltaics), innovative energy storage systems including the use of second-life electric vehicle batteries, waste-to-energy systems, smart micro grids, climate-proofing, resilience and adaptation, and rural internet access.

Running from October 2021 until September 2025, SESA is the result of a strong partnership between leading European and African universities, research centres, industry actors, local governments, knowledge and implementation organisations and networks. These will be strengthened via peer-to-peer exchange, policy dialogues, regional and international events among others.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The SESA project delivered strong dissemination and exploitation results, exceeding all KPIs and securing long-term sustainability. Ten academic publications were produced, eight within the last 17 months. The SESA Toolbox and updated Knowledge Hub were established as open-access platforms supporting knowledge transfer and replication.

Scientific publications:

1. Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Food Waste in Ghana: Biological Methane Potential and Process Stabilisation Challenges in a Rural Setting
[https://sesa-euafrica.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SESA-sustainability-17-07590-Anaerobic-Co-Digestion-of-Food-Waste-in-Ghana-Biological-Methane-Potential-and-Process-Stabilisation-Challenges-in-a-Rural-Setting.pdf]
2. Ancestral and Cultural Futuring: Speculative Design in an Indigenous ovaHimba context
[https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/730167142/Communities_Technologies_2023_9_.pdf]
3. Assessment of the biological methane potential of different food residues from a market in Ghana for local residues valorization and biogas production
[https://sesa-euafrica.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Assessment-of-the-biological-methane-potential-of-different-food-residues-from-a-market-in-Ghana-for-local-residues-valorization-and-biogas-production.pdf]
4. Co-Designing a Web-Based Interface for an AI-IoT Hydroponics System with an Indigenous Community in Namibia
[https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/796447652/Co-designing_a_WEB-BASED_INTERFACE_FOR_AN_ai-IOT.pdf]
5. Community-Based Futuring: Towards Alternative and Meaningful Green Energy-Enabled Rural Futures
[https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/community-based-futuring-towards-alternative-and-meaningful-green-2/]
6. Electric mobility initiatives in Kisumu: enablers, progress, barriers and impacts in a secondary African city
[https://sesa-euafrica.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/s42055-025-00106-0.pdf]
7. Futuring from an indigenous community stance
[https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/730166469/chiea23-455_1_.pdf]
8. In Search of Alternatives: Co-Designing a Digital Innovation Game With an Indigenous San Community
[https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/in-search-of-alternatives-co-designing-a-digital-innovation-game-/]
9. Inclusion of Namibian rural communities in green energy access and use: Requirements elicitation or community-based co-design?
[https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/inclusion-of-namibian-rural-communities-in-green-energy-access-an/]
10. Recovering lost futures of the past: Situating alternative futures within an indigenous Afrocentric orientation and past trajectory
[https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/recovering-lost-futures-of-the-past-situating-alternative-futures/]

All stakeholder engagement targets were achieved, including four Regional Events and a Final Event in Brussels consolidating results and partnerships.
Capacity building strongly exceeded the KPI: 305 people trained vs. 120 planned.
Digital performance surpassed targets: 11,003 website visits in 17 months (647/month; KPI 400), 3,499 social media followers (KPI 3,000), and 12 newsletters (KPI 8) reaching 777 recipients.
Communication outputs expanded beyond plan, adding extra flyers, brochures, infographics, business model one-pagers, Living Lab factsheets, operational manuals, and video materials. The YouTube channel recorded 2,717 views and 102 new subscribers in the last 17 months.
The exploitation strategy was fully implemented, with tailored roadmaps for all Key Exploitable Results and a comprehensive Intellectual Property framework.
Overall, SESA exceeded its dissemination and exploitation objectives, ensuring impact, scalability, and sustainability beyond the project lifetime.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

All the SESA lessons learned and challenges including technological, regulatory and business aspects will be documented (including detailed process and steps taken). The most successful cases will be presented in form of the case studies and disseminated at various European and African fora, events and workshops between 2024 and 2025.

The final version of the Deliverable 1.6 will provide the concrete figures about the project results and its socio-economic impact like the direct and indirect job creation, number of participants trained etc, number of communities getting access to electricity etc. The Evaluation framework D.1.2 and User needs assessment D.1.3 are the crucial reports that include the KPI methods and evaluation measurement.

More capacity building and peer to peer exchanges are foreseen until the end of the project and beyond the project timeline, as SESA has the online training available at the NUA campus website and webinar recordings.

Final reports concerning business model and business plans D.3.4 and report on incubator programme D.3.3 will provide with business recommendations and success factors to run SMEs in the African context (on clean cooking, e-mobility, mini-grids, solar irrigation etc). The most prominent and successful business models will be described with the potential for replication and scaling up.

Implementation summary reports (D.4.3) for the demonstration actions will provide not only with the final updates of the LLs but will include more information from the business and customer perspective.

Pre-feasibility studies for transformational sustainable energy projects are expected to gain external funding for its development and implementation.
Policy roadmaps and briefs will provide with recommendations of different technologies regulatory requirements that hinder their deployment. There will be set of different recommendations for DG. INTPA and potentially at the EU-AU level. More proposals for international funding mechanisms are expected to be finalised also in early 2025.

The final report D.6.1 on Dissemination, communication and exploitation strategy will provide the concrete steps taken. Some of the technologies that are being tested have a replication and scaling up potential. The dedicated section to the LLs and SMEs is available at the SESA website and contains the most updated state of art of the LLs.

Kisegi rural site