Renewable Energy Valleys in Africa to increase energy security and energy access in Africa
Forthcoming
Status as published by the data source.
Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
• Strengthening of the joint EU-AU Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Collaborative Partnership efforts, with emphasis on improving the visibility of EU Science Diplomacy actions in Africa and supporting Global Gateway Strategy priorities.
• Acceleration of the achievements of the African countries’ targets of the Paris Agreement.
• Increase the roll-out of local or regional renewable energy system solutions for electricity, heat and fuel needs and contribute to a fair trade between Africa and Europe.
• Create new sustainable silks and jobs linked to local or regional renewable energy system value chains and enhance economic growth in local or regional African communities.
• Increase the readiness, reliability, performance and affordability of local or regional renewable energy system solutions in Africa. Scope:
Renewable energy valleys are understood as decentralised renewable energy systems that offer a viable and efficient solution to the challenges mentioned above. For example, local production and consumption, reduced transmission and distribution losses thanks to the reliance on local networks for energy needs, greater operational flexibility and reduced dependence on expensive fuel imports all contribute to a higher energy autonomy, a more secure supply, and lower, more stable overall energy costs, including for individual citizens. In addition, this alleviates a part of the load on the centralised grid and avoids blockages by the capacity of the grid.
The action should cover either urbanised or rural contexts in Africa. It should contribute to providing sustainable renewable energy access and creating other socio-economic benefits, such as improved health, economic wealth, skills and jobs, while reducing the stress on the environment, notably on biodiversity, adopting a Water Energy Food Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus approach and following methods of the circular economy [1].
Actions are expected to cover the design, construct, commission and operate the demonstration installation, including aspects of energy needs and energy consumption, of grid stability and grid reinforcement in the region concerned. Actions should also develop and implement a tailored value chain approach, identifying the most suitable manufacturing value chains, on the basis of the local context, local material supply chain(s) and local workforce, with the objective of ensuring sustainable local economic development. A gender sensitive approach could further support the activities, taking into account relevant groups in a vulnerable situation such as rural communities, and women.
African SMEs are expected to play an important role in the overall value chain and to contribute in the identifying the needs. Participation of EU private sector actors should also be encouraged in alignment with the priorities of Global Gateway Strategy. Actions should also include the identification of technical, vocational and educational needs of the workforce and propose relevant training and qualification activities. Actions should finally define a market and business strategy that could take into consideration funding from European and international financial instruments and development finance programmes to ensure impact through a quick and viable commercial take-up of the technological solution demonstrated.
Social innovation should be considered. The business plan is expected to include appropriate consideration of available financial support instruments (local, regional and/or international) to enhance the speedy market deployment of the solution. The aspects of regulatory environment and local communities’ governance needs and/or impacts are also to be considered.
Proposals are expected to include a life cycle analysis showing the impact of the proposed solutions when compared to other technologies/solutions on the environment, on climate change targets and on the social and the economic dimensions, taking a cradle to grave viewpoint, encompassing the design and the operation phases. The life cycle analysis should take a cradle to grave approach. Proposals should adopt a circular economy approach. Whenever negative impacts have been identified, mitigations measures are expected.
As the demonstration installation will be located in Africa, relevant African partners have to participate in the implementation of the project. A balanced involvement in the activities of the projects of European and African partners will be considered an asset in the evaluation. Actions should also participate in and contribute to the African Union[2] - European Union collaborative research action on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy, in particular through cooperation/collaboration with the project LEAP-SE (www.leap-re.eu). Alignment with Global Gateway ongoing activities on renewable energy in Africa should be also prioritized, including the collaboration with EU Delegation and EU private sector actors in Africa, as well as with the Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) and Cluster 6’s topic HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-02-two-stage.
Lesson learned from the implementation of European Renewable Energy Valleys projects should be considered. These projects are REFORMERS[3] and CRETE VALLEY[4].
Proven access to necessary land and / or permits for operation at the time of application and / or convincing risk management regarding delayed availability of land or permits are expected in the proposal.
Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.
[1] For an example of a methodology for the assessment of sustainability, circularity and contribution the EU resilience and technological autonomy of clean energy technology in the R&I pipeline, please see Study on circular approaches for a sustainable and affordable clean energy transition
[2] “African Union member states” includes countries whose membership has been temporarily suspended.
[3] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101136211
[4] https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101136139
- Status
- Forthcoming
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €9,000,000
- Grant range
- €4,500,000 – €4,500,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilience
- Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution grids
- Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy
- Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Integrated Approaches for Retrofitting Infrastructures with Innovative Energy Storage Technologies
- Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plants
- Delivery of industrial CCUS clusters – Societal Readiness pilot
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plants
- Accelerating the green transition and energy access in Africa
- Africa-EU CO-FUND action
- Digital solutions for defining synergies in international renewable energy value chains
- Next generation of renewable energy technologies
- Emerging energy technologies for a climate neutral Europe
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-cl5-2027-02-d3-10.json
- Document fingerprint
27b6ebdffc33b655(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Retrieved
- First recorded here
What has changed
- url first recorded as https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl5-2027-02-d3-10 on
- currency first recorded as EUR on
- amount_max first recorded as 4500000.00 on
- amount_min first recorded as 4500000.00 on
- budget_total first recorded as 9000000.00 on
- deadline first recorded as 2027-03-31 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2026-12-03 on
- published_on first recorded as 2025-12-12 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as forthcoming on
- title first recorded as Renewable Energy Valleys in Africa to increase energy security and energy access in Africa on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved from the source on .
The source last updated this document on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:26:35 GMT.
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