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The ESMAP hydropower study tour to Norway (September 7–12, 2026) is designed as a knowledge exchange platform to demonstrate that hydropower works, drawing on Norway's decades-long hydropower journey, its role in regional energy integration, and the broader perspectives of client countries and the World Bank Group on current challenges and opportunities in the sector. Hydropower is a key technology for electricity access and supply security, providing low-carbon, dispatchable electricity and critical energy services that complement growing shares of variable renewables. Through ESMAP, the World Bank Group supports clients in assessing and optimizing their hydropower portfolios, spanning existing assets, greenfield potential, pumped storage, and flexible operations, through technical and economic analysis that clarifies hydropower's role in future power systems, informs investment pathways, and tailors development approaches to emerging needs, including through public-private partnerships.

Following successful editions in Morocco and Singapore, the third edition of the World Bank Group Scaling Up Energy Efficiency Academy, part of the World Bank Group Academy, took place in Panama City from the 12-14 of October 2026. The Energy Efficiency (EE) Academy was designed to strengthen the capacity of energy-sector practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to develop, finance, and implement demand-side energy efficiency policies and programs.  The EE Academy brought together 75 participants, including 18 WBG staff and 57 representatives from ministries of energy (including EE agencies), infrastructure, industry, environment as well as regulators, utilities and development banks. They represented 19 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Uruguay.   The three-day, in-person Academy was organized by the World Bank Group’s Knowledge Bank, in collaboration with, and with the financial support from, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and World Bank regional teams. The academy provided a platform for cross-country knowledge exchange, enabling participants to share experiences, challenges, and lessons learned.  The program opened with remarks from Carolin Geginat (Operations Manager, WBG), Malick Fall (Program Manager, IFC), Melanie Slade (Senior Programme Manager, IEA), and Lisnely Valdés Bosquez (Director of Electricity, Panama’s Energy Secretary). Day one examined global and regional energy efficiency trends and Mariano Birlain, Director General for Technological Development and Energy Access at the Ministry of Energy (SENER), presented a case study from Mexico. Heads of country delegations participated in a high-level roundtable on scaling EE across Latin America. Different presentations covered the World Bank Group’s and IEA’s approaches to EE, barriers and solutions, policy foundations, financing instruments, market potential, and key aspects for program design. Day two focused on hands-on group exercises on EE financing and program design. Participants worked through group assignments to design programs and financing mechanisms for buildings, appliances, and industry. Industry representatives from Equinix, Kilowattia, and Atera Energy joined a panel on emerging technologies, covering data centers, heat pumps, and innovations in energy management and building efficiency. On day three, a roundtable for Caribbean country delegations was organized to discuss how to unlock EE at scale. Sessions focused on different technical topics took place: demand-side management; financial and economic analysis; measurement and verification; EE and behavior change; and smart grids and grid-interactive buildings. IFC provided an overview of its tools and resources such as the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE), Buildings Resilience Index (BRI), Advanced Practices for Environmental Excellence in Cities (APEX) and the industrial decarbonization cement tool. The Academy concluded with closing remarks from Gabriela Elizondo Azuela (Practice Manager, Energy for LAC) and a site visit to the Panama Canal.   Overall, the Academy maintained a highly interactive format, featuring group assignments, polls, discussions, presentations, regional case studies, roundtables, and Q&A sessions. Participants showcased their national programs, exchanged insights, and explored innovative approaches to scaling energy efficiency. Learning and collaboration extend beyond the Academy through a dedicated Community of Practice (CoP), offering participants opportunities for continued peer exchange, knowledge sharing, and engagement through webinars and technical discussions. In collaboration with ESMAP, the CoP will connect participants to broader energy sector networks and resources, supporting the practical application of learning.Key takeaways from this edition of the Academy include:Most delegations expressed interest in all three sectors, with smaller countries more interested in the buildings and appliance sectors and larger ones in industrial EE and decarbonization. They valued insights from shared studies and data, discussions on business and financing models, presentation of case studies and showcasing of innovative technologies.There was recognition that EE does not have a traditional institutional home, so there was often a need for dedicated EE agencies to serve as institutional champions and, where absent, interest in how to engage with local power utilities. It was also noted that foundational enablers remain absent in many less developed markets, including the lack of baseline data, core regulatory frameworks (such as building codes, standards and labeling), national EE plans and targets and credible measurement and verification systems. Several delegations expressed interest in TA from the WBG to strengthen their enabling environments.Participants actively engaged on financing mechanisms, with recognition that some of the more traditional financing approaches (such as EE credit lines) have had limited impacts and thus showing greater interest in alternative financing modalities such as ESCO financing and super ESCOs, EE funds, utility on-bill financing and risk sharing/guarantees. Some saw utilities and their ability to influence their customer bases as a useful tool, while others felt EE should be promoted through other channels.Many delegations emphasized the need to strengthen communications and awareness around EE, identifying this as a fundamental barrier to scaling up EE action. Participants valued insights from behavioral aspects to drive coordinated action among policymakers, financiers, and end-users. There was also strong interest in more effectively communicating and leveraging the multiple benefits of EE, such as energy security, fiscal benefits and jobs, to elevate its prominence on government agendas.Feedback on the event from post-event surveys and interviews was overwhelmingly positive, even though an earthquake struck just two days before participants were due to travel to the event. This created unexpected logistical challenges and required the organizing team to adapt quickly. Despite these disruptions, the event proceeded smoothly, with participants highlighting the quality of the expert-led sessions, practical implementation examples, and opportunities for regional knowledge exchange.

As part of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, join us in shaping an energy future where women and girls can thrive—free from violence. Our ESMAP webinar launches the VAWG–Energy Guidance Note, turning this ambition into practical action for a safer, more inclusive energy transition.Energy projects can expand women’s access to energy, jobs, and economic opportunities. But without adequate safeguards, they can also create risks of violence against women and girls (VAWG). These risks may affect women as energy consumers, workers, or members of communities affected by energy projects—particularly where safety measures, reporting channels, and support services are limited.This session will bring together governments, civil society, bilateral agencies, private sector actors, and World Bank Group energy teams to share practical lessons from energy access, large-scale infrastructure, and green economy transitions. Speakers will explore how the Guidance Note can help teams integrate VAWG considerations throughout the energy value chain.

For decades, Namibia has imported most of its electricity from neighboring countries, leaving households and businesses exposed to supply shortfalls and price swings it cannot control.The country has world-class solar and wind resources. What it lacks is the means to make that power reliable around the clock. Energy storage such as batteries, which capture surplus renewable power and dispatch it on demand, change that equation. Namibia is now one of a growing group of developing countries at the forefront of a global push to make it happen.With concessional financing from the Green Climate Fund and technical assistance from the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), national utility NamPower is building the foundations for utility-scale energy storage deployment.A member of ESMAP's Energy Storage Partnership, a global coalition working to accelerate storage deployment in developing countries, Namibia's utility is part of an expanding movement to make energy storage a practical reality globally. The goal? To break the cycle in which developing countries remain locked out of cheap, clean power because no one has solved the intermittency problem.For NamPower's Senior Manager for System Security and Planning in Transmission Kandara Mukusuka, an ESMAP study tour that brought together energy experts from across the developing world to explore long duration energy storage technologies and market developments in the United States added useful perspective to those conversations. “The study tour helped shift the conversation internally. Seeing utility-scale battery storage operating in real grids, solving real problems, showed that this is not a technology of the future — it is available now, and it works.”Among the takeaways from the study tour was a sharper appreciation of what makes some markets succeed where others stall. “What struck me most was how much the enabling environment matters,” said Mukusuka. “The countries that are getting this right have not necessarily moved fastest on the hardware. They have moved fastest on the regulatory questions. That is the lesson we are bringing home to Namibia.”But building energy storage systems is, in many ways, the easier part. The harder problem is what comes next. Once a storage system is running, how does a utility get paid for what it provides? NamPower is now putting that question to its regulator. Across Africa and the developing world, utilities and governments are grappling with the same issue. Energy storage does not behave like a conventional power plant. It steadies the grid, absorbs renewable surpluses, and can defer hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission investment. Yet in most countries, the regulatory rules to recognize and remunerate those services simply do not exist.So, what does work? A new World Bank Group report, Remunerating Energy Storage Services: A Global Perspective, goes looking for answers in the markets that have actually cracked it. The findings are unambiguous: revenue certainty is the single most important factor in unlocking private investment in storage. In advanced electricity markets such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, storage projects are recognized of its own kind asset class and granted access to different power markets and compensation for the same services as other energy assets provide. They can even stack revenues across multiple energy markets. But in most developing countries that is not yet feasible. There, the more practical route is long-term procurement of contracts and power purchase agreements that provide a bankable revenue stream over a timeframe long enough to support project finance. Such contracts give lenders the revenue certainty they need, while allowing governments and utilities to procure flexibility at least cost.NamPower's Chief Operating Officer Ben Mingeli knows the issues first-hand. “The question we are dealing with is the challenge every utility in our position faces: we can see the value that battery storage delivers to the grid, but how do we make sure that an investment is financially sustainable for NamPower and fair to our customers?”Part of the answer lies in the report's emphasis on ensuring energy storage is the least-cost option in resource planning. “For a utility like ours, operating in a cost-reflective market, that guidance is directly relevant to the conversations we are now having with our regulator,” says Mingeli.On definition of regulation, the lessons are just as clear. Almost every country that has successfully scaled storage made the same foundational move: it stopped treating batteries like power plants. Storage is a dual-mode asset. It charges and discharges. Force it into licensing categories and tariff structures designed for conventional generation and investors will walk away, deterred by double-charging of network tariffs, exclusion from ancillary service markets, and rules that were never written with them in mind.The good news is that energy arbitrage (charge at low price and discharge at high price) and energy shifting (charge during surplus renewable generation and discharge during high demand) are natural starting points, services where batteries outperform conventional alternatives and where even modest early procurement can get a project pipeline moving.None of this demands recreating the complexity of the world's most sophisticated electricity markets. The countries that have made the most progress did so by getting a sequence of fundamentals right: ensuring storage is properly evaluated when governments plan their grids rather than treated as an add-on, defining storage in law, opening it up to well-defined grid services, and putting compensation arrangements in place that developers and lenders can actually work with.For Namibia, the conversation NamPower is now having with its regulator is exactly the one this work was designed to support. The regulatory framework that emerges can support utilities like Nampower to see that energy storage fulfills its promise as a commercially viable, replicable solution — and for that experience to become a model that others across the region can learn from. The resources are there. The investment is in place. What happens next depends on getting the rules right.

This press release was originally published on the World Bank Group website.New report points to a maturing off-grid solar market that could power up to 398 million more people by 2030, helping close the gap for the 655 million still without electricityKigali, Rwanda, 27 October 2026 – Off-grid solar is reaching more people than ever and increasingly powering more livelihoods, businesses, and essential services. According to the Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2026, released today by the World Bank Group’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and GOGLA, the global off-grid solar association, at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo in Kigali, the number of people using solar home systems, water pumps, generators, lanterns and other off-grid solar products rose by 26% over the past two years, from 118 million to 149 million*.The report finds that off-grid solar remains the least-cost solution for at least 398 million people without access to electricity and a strong complement to the grid, often serving communities beyond its reach. Reaching those populations by 2030 will require sustained public and private investment, supported by policies that improve affordability and expand access to financing.Long considered a bridge to the grid, off-grid solar is now recognized as infrastructure. As energy prices rise, off-grid solar offers a secure, resilient and affordable source of power for households, farms, schools, health facilities, and small businesses, while complementing investments in grid expansion and mini-grids.The report also highlights the durability and maturity of the sector. Among surveyed customers, 95% reported that their solar home systems remained functional four or more years after purchase, underscoring the technology’s ability to deliver sustained energy access.

The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) report, Productive Use of Energy: A Program Design Guide, highlights the importance of converting electricity access into jobs, higher incomes, resilient livelihoods, and economic growth. In 2024, 655 million people lacked basic electricity access, particularly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and harder-to-serve communities.The guide helps governments and development partners design sustainable Productive Use of Energy (PUE) programs by providing a practical framework to gather data, map and consult stakeholders, analyze market barriers, and design interventions.Key FindingsOutcome-led design: Prioritize development outcomes over a technology or its power sourceCross-sectoral collaboration: Engage non-energy partners from design through deliveryAgile implementation: Build on existing intelligence and institutionsHolistic support: Combine reliable energy with financing, technical assistance, business skills, and market access, emphasizing inclusion, particularly for women.Long-term sustainability: Establish exit strategies and identify market actors responsible for sustaining services after external support ends.The ESMAP report emphasizes that sustainable PUE markets require coordinated, inclusive, evidence-based, and flexible program design, supported by clear performance indicators, independent evaluations, and transparent reporting.

The Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2026, jointly published by the World Bank Group’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and GOGLA, assess the growth, impact, and challenges of the sector. It highlights the sector’s role in expanding electricity access, supporting livelihoods, and advancing the Mission 300 goal of connecting 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030.  Off-grid solar has evolved from basic lighting into essential energy infrastructure for households, businesses, farms, and public services. Despite strong progress, affordability gaps, uneven market development, and concentrated financing continue to limit access for vulnerable communities.  Key Findings Expanding access: Affiliate market products reached 149 million people in 2025, up from 118 million in 2023. Off-grid solar is the least-cost solution for at least 398 million people without electricity. Economic benefits: Over 15 years, off-grid solar generated an estimated $28 billion in additional customer income and savings. The sector employs approximately 219,000 people. Reliable technology: 95% of surveyed customers reported that their systems were still functioning four or more years after purchase. Affordability challenges: Many households cannot afford solar home systems, even when they represent the lowest-cost option. Displaced people, women, and productive-use customers face particular barriers. Uneven investment: Commercial financing reached $315 million in 2025, but funding is concentrated among leading companies and markets, leaving smaller local firms and underserved regions behind. Investment needs: Reaching all 398 million people for whom OGS is the least-cost solution by 2030 requires around $11.4 billion between 2027 and 2030.  Recommendations Governments should provide stable policy and regulatory environments and use targeted measures, such as VAT exemptions, import duty waivers, and subsidies, to improve affordability. Development partners should deploy targeted subsidies, concessional and blended finance, and results-based financing, directing capital to underserved markets and locally owned companies.  Read the Press Release.Click here to further explore the MTR microsite and AI chatbot at mtr.esmap.orgPrevious Reports2024Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2022 - State of the SectorOff-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2022 - Outlook202020182012

The World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), through the Energy Storage Partnership (ESP), will convene two connnected, consecutive events in New Delhi: the Energy Storage Academy Training on October 29–31, 2026, followed by the ESP Stakeholder Forum and 13th Partners’ Meeting on November 2–4, 2026. The program will bring together World Bank Group staff and government clients, ESP partners, ESMAP donors, technical experts, industry practitioners, and investors to advance practical solutions for scaling energy storage in emerging markets and developing economies. The participants will have an opportunity to attend the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo 2026 held concurrently on November 2-5, 2025 in New Delhi and organized by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of India and the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and ISA General Assembly.The three-day Energy Storage Academy will deepen participants’ knowledge of the technical, policy, regulatory, procurement, system-integration, grid-operation, and operations and maintenance issues that arise as storage moves from pilot projects to deployment at scale. Delivered through expert presentations, case studies, interactive discussions, and a field visit to an active battery energy storage system, the training will draw on real-world experience and emerging business models from multiple regions. Participation in the Academy training is by invitation and is open to World Bank Group staff, ESP partners, and their country clients.The Stakeholder Forum and 13th Partners’ Meeting will provide a broader platform for countries, development partners, researchers, and the private sector to review ESP’s strategic direction, share deployment experience, and examine the latest developments in storage technologies, policies, markets, and investment. The program will include panel discussions, technology and storage solution showcases, and site visits, with topics ranging from long-duration energy storage, valuation of storage services, enabling policy and regulations, viable business models, grid integration, to innovative applications for transmission and distribution utilities. The Stakeholder Forum and Partners’ Meeting will be co-organized by ESMAP and ISA.Together, these events create a continuous learning and partnership journey—from building institutional capacity, to exchanging experience, shaping collaboration, and accelerating bankable and sustainable energy storage deployment.