This is a component of the Transforming Energy Access for Households and Improved Livelihoods Programme (TEA), a 5-year programme with a funding of up to GBP69 million from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), which aiming at transformative impact on the deployment of renewable energy solutions to support the progress of clean energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

BSEAA aims to investigate how to improve the effectiveness and commercial viability of bioenergy technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. It targets bioenergy entrepreneurs (particularly technology and project developers), investors and policymakers, to catalyse action for bioenergy development in SSA.

Phase 1 of the BSEAA (2016-2017) consisted of scoping research that investigated the realities of bioenergy technology in some target countries across SSA, with a specific focus on commercial and industrial applications (i.e. productive use). The scoping phase also included a broad investigation of the challenges and opportunities affecting the adoption and roll out of bioenergy technology across SSA narrowing down to 10 target countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.

BSEAA Phase 2 (2019-2021) consists of an academic research and a technology innovation project. It intends to identify and support the development of innovative, commercial bioenergy pathways and technologies that will accelerate the successful production and use of bioenergy. The research aims to identify and investigate commercially viable opportunities for the development of modern bioenergy technologies for electricity and/or heat generation in the output range 10 kWe to 5 MWe.