Gigawatt Impact

A Renewable Energy Platform for Africa

Catalyzing and scaling SDGs and building resilient communities through clean energy projects

Our Mission

Initiated by the founders of the award-winning development team of Gigawatt Global, Gigawatt Impact is our non-profit strategy to scale renewable energy in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and vulnerable rural communities across the world. Gigawatt Impact leverages venture philanthropy to develop utility-scale, community-based green renewable energy projects, increasing these communities’ financial and environmental independence and combatting racial and economic injustice.

Using the most innovative, ethical and proven toolkit in the industry, our veteran team applies skills perfected by Gigawatt Global and deploys them in this new non-profit model to bring clean energy opportunities where they are needed most. Our goal is to foster economic and social development, fight climate injustice, expand weak grids, create climate resilience in vulnerable communities, and eliminate the use of diesel generation.

Gigawatt Impact promotes large and small renewable energy projects by consulting, contracting, grant-giving, and supervising development with our team of experts, in collaboration with local communities and leaders. Our team has over ten years of experience, with a track record and pipeline of projects across three continents.

Gigawatt Impact’s Transformational Channels:

Powering Hope

Working with local communities to develop the initial stages of green energy projects that can transform lives, while empowering local leaders to take ownership of these initiatives, in order to bring projects to be shovel-ready.

The Challenge – Financing Power

Providing power to the 600 million people in Africa without electricity – and millions more like them around the world – is an urgent imperative of the international community. Energy poverty often leads to malnutrition and hunger, as well as to lack of education and economic opportunity, and sustains the racial and economic injustices of the past. The climate crisis exacerbates many of these challenges, especially for people living in Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Despite many efforts and programs for the past decade, less than 1% of climate finance reaches sub-Saharan Africa, according to BloombergNEF. International development financing institutions, capital markets, and equity sponsors are eager to finance high-quality, bankable green energy projects on the continent. Exponentially more project financing is available than there are projects to receive it.
Yet for the past ten years, the international community and developers have pursued a project-by-project approach which is simply not scalable, and neither efficient nor effective. Lack of progress on the ground, and the lack of deployment of project finance in green energy proves this. And there are not enough charitable funds to make a meaningful dent in the energy poverty of the region, unless they are leveraged to unlock massive private sector financing in a blended finance model.

The Solution – Venture Philanthropy