How are the social impact figures calculated?
The calculations displayed on our website and in your portfolio are estimates, based on calculations from the Global Off-Grid Lighting Alliance’s (GOGLA) Standardised Impact Metrics for the Off-Grid Solar Energy Sector (V4, April 2020). While the technology required to report real-time data from the various solar home systems and other clean energy installations financed through Energise Africa exists, the companies we work with use a variety of monitoring systems and we have therefore opted to go with the standardised approach developed by GOGLA.
The linked document provides an in-depth explanation of how these metrics have been developed, and how they can be used by different stakeholders within the sector, so if you are interested to learn more, please do visit GOGLA’s website or download their guidance on the standard impact metrics here.
In building our impact calculations for the information provided in your portfolio environment and across our website as a whole, we have made the following assumptions (alongside those indicated in the GOGLA guidance):
People having improved opportunities and livelihoods
We assume that there is an average of five people per household in the areas where our portfolio companies operate. Therefore, for each solar home system financed by investments made on Energise Africa, we calculate that five people have benefitted from improved energy access.The figure in your portfolio is calculated by multiplying the number of systems that your investment has funded by an average 5 people per household (rounded up to the nearest whole number).
CO2 emissions prevented from entering the atmosphere
We assume that from the point that funds are disbursed to the company, it will take an average of six months for them to order, receive and distribute the solar home systems to households. We also assume that each solar home system comes with a two year warranty (as per the information provided by our portfolio companies) and that each solar home system therefore has a typical lifespan of 3 years. (Note that depending on usage and maintenance, this could be much longer in reality.)
We assume that each solar home system will typically replace one kerosene lantern, though in reality, larger systems may replace more lanterns, and some systems will be a replacement or an upgrade on an existing solar home system.
We work with GOGLA’s figure of 0.431 metric tons of carbon dioxide and black carbon emissions produced per kerosene lantern per year.
Hours of quality light
We assume that a solar home system is typically used for 350 days a year, to provide between 1.3 and 2.3 extra hours of light per day. This figure is aggregated across all the solar home system related investments in your portfolio.