Clean Energy Solutions for Women

Clean Energy Solutions for Women equips women smallholder farmers in Kenya with subsidized solar-powered agricultural tools, training, and financial literacy.

Clean Energy Solutions for Women (CES4W) provides smallholder women farmers in Kenya with subsidized solar-powered agricultural machines and tools, as well as the training and financial literacy to ensure the uptake of productive use equipment extends beyond the program’s two-year lifespan.

Solar-powered agricultural machines and tools such as irrigation, cold storage and processing equipment can reduce losses while increasing the market price of products. But low awareness of the technology, its high upfront costs and limited financial independence mean women – who make up 66 percent of Africa’s agricultural workforce – often have limited access to these energy-efficient tools.

As a result, women farmers and entrepreneurs cannot maximize their ability to invest, grow their businesses, increase their incomes and build their resilience to economic and climate shocks.

CES4W, a partnership between the Gates Foundation and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, demonstrates how economic opportunities for African women in agriculture can be expanded by improving sustainable access to productive use equipment.

CES4W by the numbers

2 Years (2024–2026)

Duration

3,000+

Women to be reached

2,000+

Items of equipment to be distributed
CES4W in action

CES4W combines equipment distribution, demonstration and learning, financial literacy training and innovative financing to enable women to benefit from solar-powered machinery and tools in Kenya. The program works through partnerships with equipment providers, farmers’ cooperatives and financial institutions to ensure women can access both the equipment and the support needed to use it effectively.

  • Demonstration and learning: CES4W establishes demonstration sites where women can experience technologies in real-world settings, learn from peers and better understand how these solutions can improve productivity and incomes.
  • Financial literacy training: Through financial literacy training and practical business support, women build the knowledge and confidence needed to evaluate investments, manage finances and maximize the value of productive-use technologies.
  • Access to finance for productive use equipment: Through the Productive Use Financing Facility, CES4W shapes the market by providing subsidies to suppliers and users, reducing the cost while increasing demand and supply.

Get involved

Support the next generation of financing and delivery models that can make productive use equipment more affordable and accessible for women, strengthen markets and translate clean energy access into jobs, incomes and economic opportunity.