Marga Manzo

Marga joined SunFunder in August 2021 to drive the company's entry into Asia. Over the years, Marga has sat on both the developer and funder sides of the table. She has managed venture debt funds for Southeast Asian energy and WASH SMEs, fundraised for a Kenyan micro-grid startup, and led corporate and structured finance transactions for utility-scale renewable energy projects in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.

Financing Green Energy: Unlocking Private Investment in Renewable Energy

The drivers of private investment in renewable energy are assessed by source of financing, namely asset finance, corporate R&D, public markets, and venture capital and private equity. In particular, controlling for macroeconomic and financial market conditions, the role of public policies on renewable energy (public investment in R&D, feed-in-tariffs, and tax incentives) in leveraging private investment is examined for a sample of Asian and other economies.

Enabling Private Finance in Power Grid Transmission Development

In order to achieve mid-term sustainable development goals and long-term Net Zero Emission goal investment in the power sector needs to increase significantly. This includes investment in grids in order to facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy. Transmission grids in the Asia-Pacific region are mostly financed by the public sector, however in order to reach the needed levels of investment all sources of finance must be unlocked.

Randi Kristiansen

Randi Kristiansen is an Economic Affairs Officer with United Nations ESCAP Energy Division. With UN ESCAP she works on a broad range of connectivity issues across the Asia-Pacific Region, but has a special focus on cross-border connectivity for the power sector. Before joining UN ESCAP Randi worked for the IEA in the Renewable Integration and Secure Electricity Unit, where she advised governments in Southeast Asia, China and India on matters related to renewables integration, cross-border power trade and power system flexibility.

Empowering Women, Youth and Marginalized Groups to Co-design and Take part in Energy use and Skill Development in a Photovoltaic (PV) Small-Scale Off-Grid Renewable in Indonesia

The presentation highlights the learning on MENTARI project in increasing women, youth and marginalized groups’ participation in the planning and implementation stage of the 95 kWp PV mini-grid in Central Sumba Indonesia. The presentation showcases tools and gender and inclusion interventions to increase participations of women, youth and marginalized groups to co-design activities and some part of system planning as well as to plan and benefit from capacity building programs e.g. technical and non-technical skills.

Bridging Agricultural Livelihoods and Energy Access in Myanmar: Reflections on Power, Poverty and Vulnerability

By mapping social networks in rice husk value chain in Labutta, Ayeyarwaddy Region, we identified actors and network structures that could play important roles in supporting energy access and increasing livelihood opportunities for smallholders. Our interviews and group discussions with farmers and millers also revealed important challenges and opportunities for rice husk bioenergy within rural farming communities.