Integrated Renewable Energy Services project (IRES) - Rwanda

This project includes Inclusive Business development models with private enterprises and cooperatives/associations to reach out to 40,000 rural end user/households with solar PV products.

The Integrated Renewable Energy Services Project (IRES) project (funded by DGIS, The Netherlands) aims to design, develop and validate innovative business models and distribution channels for Solar pico-PV products, taking the market approach as a main driver and starting point. The project has introduced rural exhibitions of solar products, currently imported and commercialized in the country. The exhibition mechanism brings private companies to rural areas while creating new trade partnerships between local cooperatives and the companies. The project also supports private companies to provide business development technical assistance by creating with existing marketing plans, new initiatives to further develop their penetration in their operation areas. The programme distributed 1834 solar lamps in 10 months of implementation and developed 3 solar exhibitions in the districts, establishing partnerships with 3 solar companies and 4 cooperatives/associations.

With the development of the Market Intelligence study, challenges of the private companies for further development of the sector were identified, such as customer affordability, access to capital and most important the need of awareness creation for demand motivation.