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Renewable Energy: Scaling Deployment in the United States Chapter j 5 107

FIGURE 5.5 Sierra Leone’s distributed renewable energy Taskforce.

Renewable Energy Association of Sierra Leone (REASL); Africa’s first quality-
linked VAT/tariff exemption; demand creation and awareness campaigns that
led to market growth (including a school campaign by Oxfam IBIS), and
development of an micro-finance association to unlock local finance. These
market activation mechanisms align directly with those implemented in other
high performing DRE markets, as we have seen from our analysis.
One year later Sierra Leone’s DRE market had grown over 10 times in size
and attracted a dozen key DRE companies like Azuri Technologies, Barefoot
Power, Mobile Power, Ignite Power, Greenlight Planet, d.light, and TOTAL
(Awango). While the situation in every country is unique, Sierra Leone is a
prime market activation case study and offers a successful roadmap for how
other countries with the political will can spark their own energy revolution.

CONCLUSIONS

Renewable energy sources continue to experience remarkable growth, both in
terms of technological advancement and economic viability. In the context of