10 July 2025, London: Five ground-breaking innovation projects designed to give homes, healthcare, farms, schools, SMEs, and transport in Nigeria new access to affordable clean power are underway following collaborations between organisations in the UK, Nigeria, India and Sweden.
The 12-month-long projects, funded by Innovate UK are the second phase of ZE-Gen’s ground-breaking Accelerator programme. The five unique projects have been awarded a share of £2.4m in grant funding and commercialisation support from ZE-Gen – the leading international initiative aimed at fossil fuel generator displacement.
Of the estimated 25 million fossil-fuelled generators relied upon in emerging economies, three million are used in Nigeria and the latest ZE-Gen projects will help develop new international markets, opening economic opportunities in the UK and Nigeria over the coming years
The five projects bring together expertise from 28 innovation partners and collaborators to advance technologies such as mini-grids, hybrid solar-wind and solar batteries and energy storage systems.
Despite being home to two thirds of the world’s population, emerging economies only account for 15% of global clean energy investment – with homes and businesses facing frequent blackouts that can last for weeks at a time, negatively impacting daily lives and business income.
To date, ZE-Gen has catalysed £39.75m in support, including from the IKEA Foundation and UK aid through the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund and has supported more than 35 localised renewable energy projects across Nigeria, the Philippines, Cote d’Ivoire, Fiji, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda.
Dr James Coombes O’Brien, ZE-Gen lead at Innovate UK said:
“Innovation is at the centre of everything that ZE-Gen does. We’re delighted to support these cutting-edge technologies to take forward R&D in Nigeria and to work collaboratively to solve global challenges to benefit people and the Nigerian and UK economies.”
Lily Beadle, ZE-Gen lead at the Carbon Trust, said:
“Partnerships and localisation are at the heart of ZE-Gen and ensure our projects have real-world impact. ZE-Gen takes a holistic approach to solving the problem of fossil fuel generators, and these latest projects are part of creating a real eco-system of change to ensure positive impact on supply chains, communities and local markets.”
ZE-Gen is providing the projects with tailored commercialisation support to accelerate their route to market including coaching, one-to-one support and events along with strategic advice to enable investment readiness, market engagement, and product development.
It is estimated that 25 million, highly polluting, fossil fuel generators are in use across emerging economies, resulting in huge financial, social and environmental costs.[1] Associated health risks include premature death, lung cancer, hearing impairment and numerous other problems. High carbon emissions can also hold back countries’ efforts to meet their climate goals, and the high running costs of fossil fuel generators can reduce finance available for business, healthcare and education.
The final Phase 3 of the ZE-Gen Accelerator, ‘Flight’, will focus on experimental development, involving the demonstration and validation of innovations and will launch in April 2026.
Notes to editors
Background information: ZE-Gen
Launched at COP27, ZE-Gen, is the leading international initiative working to improve the lives of people across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region by driving the use of renewable energy in place of polluting fossil fuel generators.
ZE-Gen is a collaborative initiative by the Carbon Trust and Innovate UK and has an ambition to mobilise £100m of funding to inspire action and implement real-world change, delivered in partnership with sector specialists
The Carbon Trust leads on ZE-Gen’s policy, research, outreach and strategy, with input and oversight across the whole ZE-Gen programme. This includes bringing partners together and engaging with the public and private sector to identify new opportunities and providing commercialisation support such as investment readiness, market engagement, strategy & sales and product/service development.
Innovate UK is responsible for delivering grant funding to advance renewable technology through the ZE-Gen Innovation Fund.
To date, ZE-Gen has catalysed £39.75m including support from the IKEA Foundation and the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund and has supported more than 35 localised renewable energy projects across Nigeria, the Philippines, Cote d’Ivoire, Fiji, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda.
About the Ayrton Fund
The UK Government announced the Ayrton Fund commitment of up to £1bn for clean energy innovation at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019. It is part of the total £11.6bn of UK International Climate Finance also announced over the period from 2021 to 2026.
The vision of the Ayrton Fund is to help drive forward the clean energy transition in developing countries, by creating and demonstrating new technologies and business models to deploy them. It will demonstrate UK leadership and expertise in cutting global emissions through world-leading innovations. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) jointly manage the Ayrton Fund.
For more information please contact: ze-gen@carbontrust.com
Visit the ZE-Gen programme website
Background information: ZE-Gen Accelerators
The ZE-Gen Technology Accelerator is a multi-stage competition with £10.8 million in funding for projects that aims to fast-track the innovations needed to effectively replace fossil-fuelled generators with renewable energy-based alternatives in target regions. Phase 1 brought to life 20 projects across the Philippines and Nigeria, with all organisations from Phase 1 eligible to apply for Phase 2 of the competition.
The five projects in ZE-Gen Accelorator Phase 2 are:
| Project lead | Details | Partners | Target customer |
| Anfani UK/Nigeria | Hybrid Solar- Wind RE System, plus Batteries (chemical storage) | Nigeria: Sirius-XStrategic Women & Youth Insitiute Bayero UniGreenwich Anaytics UK Oxford UniThinkClock Battery LabsTechnicaGyre Energy | Small-scale farmers, MSMEs, women-led businesses |
| DP Sun UK | Solar-based mini grid | Nigeria CeesolarCircular Economy Innovation PartnershipSolar Sister | Edondon Community: Cassava milling, households, schools, SMEs |
| CEE – Centre for Energy Equality Ltd UK | Solar Battery Hubs, E-Mobility (swappable batteries), Compressed Air Energy Storage | Nigeria: Standard Microfinance BankPAM AfricaRITA&Aaron UK: Moonlight EnergyTree AssociatesBotanic Energy | Households, SME, Schools, Healthcare, Plus e-mobility (e-scooters/motorcycles) Agriculture/healthcare |
| Sleekabyte UK/Nigeria | Mobile Solar Generator, Rechargeable and lettable energy captures, Energy management system Batteries (chemical storage) | Nigeria: CitibimTegence Consulting | |
| Thinkclock UK | Second life batteries (retired EV batteries) | Nigeria: CelloopEnergy & Innovation Development Solutions hubSo-Cool Solutions India: Decibels Lab Sweden: Cling Systems |
[1] 20190919-summary-the-dirty-footprint-of-the-broken-grid.pdf