Green Cross is also building connections between water, livelihoods and clean energy, notably in Senegal. With support from Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Green Cross Italy has installed new photovoltaic systems and high-efficiency pumps to supply drip-irrigation systems on two cultivation areas.

Development of the first solar + battery system at a community center in New York City. This solar system is designed to provide basic needs in the case of grid outage. A similar system is also up and running at Global Green’s Climate Action Center in New Orleans.

 

In Russia, a biogas facility, operating independently of any external supplies of gas, electricity, heat, motor fuel or fertilizer, was developed and partially tested by Green Cross. The work included analytical studies of the applications of bioenergy from agricultural producers in the Russian regions, as well as promoting the integrated use of biomass in agricultural production by processing waste into organic fertilizer, energy, motor fuel, humus soil and feed additives. Green Cross participated in specialised conferences on the problems of using alternative energy in agriculture, housing and communal services, and also prepared messages, presentations, publications and professional journal articles on the subject of alternative energy. Further study will permit the adaptation and optimisation of the biogas facility for the specific conditions of various modern agricultural enterprises. We’re currently refining the technology and developing additional tests with target completion in 2018-2019.

Over 2,000 clean cookstoves have been deployed to date as a part of a pilot program by Green Cross Ghana. The cookstoves are paid for with an impact investing loan that is paid back by cookstove recipients using mobile phone payments. We’re actively seeking to pilot additional impact investing models and consortium building for solar energy in West Africa.

 

As a next step, we’re going to tie together some of these programmes with an international solar report card that includes both energy access and grid resiliency, showing how different countries measure up, along with actions that are needed for improvement. We’re seeking help from technical experts who are interested in serving as volunteers to contribute to the Solar Report Card, please contact us at corr@globalgreen.org.