INSIGHTS
From PREO’s experience working with productive use enterprises across Africa and the Pacific Islands, approaches tailored to local context and embedded in trusted local networks have proven more promising than those that seek to implement predetermined models. A pattern consistently emerges: technology enables impact, but social capital and consistent human presence on the ground help make it durable.
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Written by Rhiannon Turner, PREO Programme Manager. Sunshine Pacific is a farm supplying Frankie’s, one of Samoa’s largest supermarket groups. They produce eggs and hydroponic crops, using automation to help address a chronic labour shortage. A PREO grant has supported solarisation of the operation, cutting electricity costs and proving a model that other local farmers might follow.
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Written by Rhiannon Turner, PREO Programme Manager. Motu Juice engineer Rick Dalton and local entrepreneur Calvin Schumaker, together, with support from a PREO grant, have built a ‘factory in a box’: processing equipment housed in an air-conditioned shipping container, producing 500 to 600 pouches of locally-sourced coconut milk per day. These are sterilised and sealed and can be safely stored without cooling.
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Written by Rhiannon Turner, PREO Programme Manager. Late last year, I travelled across the Pacific Islands to visit several PREO-funded projects supported through grants since early 2025. While some challenges echo our work in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands amplifies them: populations spread across vast ocean distances, inter-island travel measured in days rather than hours, and communities where relationships and cultural practice shape how – and whether – projects succeed. I wanted to understand what it truly takes to deliver meaningful lasting impact here.
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Across sub-Saharan Africa, renewable energy is moving steadily from household use into the productive core of local economies. Since 2019, the Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities (PREO) programme has both tracked and catalysed this transition, supporting clean energy enterprises that enable value creation across food systems, small businesses, logistics and digital services.
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Responses to the recent PREO open call for Africa-focused projects can offer some encouraging insights into productive use of renewable energy (PURE) sector in sub-Saharan Africa. With a total of USD 3 million available in this round of grant funding, PREO invited applications for business models demonstrating the viability of PURE solutions, across sectors including agro-processing, cooling, solar irrigation, e-waste recycling, textile production, e-mobility, education, healthcare, ICT, and street lighting.
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