NXT Grid BV, a solar mini-grid rental company with a focus on online automation and standardisation to empower local mini-grid developers in Sub-Saharan Africa, has secured an investment from All On, a Nigerian impact-investing firm seeded by Shell.
In a statement, All On noted that with the further advance of market-available mini-grid technologies and the reduction in mini-grid equipment costs, renewable energy sources in combination with mini-grid systems are slowly gaining ground.
All On Investment Manager, Afolabi Akinrogunde, said, “To close the massive energy access gap in Nigeria, we need continuous innovation. NXT Grid’s low-cost mini-grid model offers a new way to scale mini-grids rapidly with multiple partners.
“We are excited about this investment and confident that leveraging their technology tools and access to finance, we will be able to provide the market another alternative to lighting up thousands of households and small businesses across the country.”
The company stated further that by 2030, renewable energy sources were predicted to power over 60 per cent of new energy access connections, and that about 50 per cent of the connections would be realised through mini-grid systems, underpinned by new business models using digital and mobile technologies.
It also noted that for SSA alone, up to 200,000 mini-grids were needed to connect 450m people, according to the International Energy Agency, requiring a capital investment of at least $93bn by 2030 to reach the target to establish 81m connections.
All On added, “2030 is the year the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 is slated to be achieved, and mini-grids are essential part of the work to be done. Yet, in its ‘State of the Global Mini-Grids Market Report 2020,’ BloombergNEF and Sustainable Energy for All reported that only some 2,000 mini-grids were installed and operational in SSA as of the beginning of 2020.”
The Chief Executive Officer, NXT Grid, Fabio De Pascale, remarked, “We are extremely excited about partnering with All On. Their knowledge of the Nigerian market and their deep involvement in the mini-grids sector is a perfect match for the NXT Grid platform.
“The All On investment is a strong statement of value recognition by the most prominent mini-grids investor in Nigeria. Thanks to the investment, we will be able to further grow our capacity for renting mini-grid assets to local developers, and accelerate the growth of the mini-grid sector in Nigeria.”
NXT Grid’s cloud-based platform, based on smart automation algorithms, in combination with its rental offering to local developers, is key to reaching the scalability and acceleration needed to achieve the ambitious universal energy access targets.
