REPARLE (Renewable Energy Powering Agriculture and Rural Livelihood Enhancement) is developing an off-grid electrification project in Northern Uganda that uses hybrid solar and gasification solutions to turn agricultural residues into electricity for microgrids in rural refugee and host small-holder farming communities. The electricity generated will power crop supply chain activities (including agricultural processing, irrigation, transportation services through electric vehicles and battery charging) as well as pelleting facilities to generate clean cooking fuel using Agri processing residues.
Agriculture is a significant employment driver in Uganda (80% of the population lives in rural farming communities), but its employment potential is hindered by lack of access to energy (32+ millions of people in Uganda without electricity), siloed markets, informal logistics systems, limited water, and outdated infrastructure. As a result, farmers are restricted from growing many high-value crops, often suffer from price exploitation due to lack of competition, and are forced to rely on harmful, polluting and expensive systems. Throughout its solution REPARLE is addressing these challenges by providing sustainable, reliable and affordable energy and processing services to empower rural communities on a resilient and long-term perspective.
The PREO funding will help the company to upgrade its infrastructure at three of the existing sites by installing a Pellet factory, agro-processing facilities as well as mini-grid powered EVs to transport agricultural residue to the briquette making factory, and agricultural produce to the processing unit. REPARLE will also upgrade the power supply at its agricultural processing unit through solar PV, install charging stations for the EVs, and set-up a digital system to manage biomass collection and briquette sales.
Their objective is to build a circular economy where agricultural waste is purchased from refugee and host small-holder farmers to be used as biomass feedstock to generate electricity and clean cooking briquettes. This project also aims to increase the value of locally produced agricultural products through agro-processing. This will in turn increase the income of local farming communities, and reduce the reliance of communities on external aid, free-up time for productive uses, support local economic development and increase market access of agricultural products.