Community Energy Systems and Sustainable Energy Transitions in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique (CESET)

A collaborative multi-institutional research partnership funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, CESET explores the potential of community energy systems to accelerate inclusive, just, and clean energy transitions in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique.

Map showing extreme precarity of energy access in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique

News

Community energy projects in Africa

6th November, 2025

An online exhibition looking at the people and projects bringing sustainable energy solutions to communities in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique features in Sheffield's Festival of Social Science from 23 October to 9 November 2025.

The online exhibition is linked to the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science theme for 2025 of ‘our working lives’ as the featured videos demonstrate how people in the global south are harnessing off grid electricity to support healthcare, business development and food production.

CESET presents at the American Solar Energy Society Conference

19th August, 2025

Amare Assefa, a CESET project member from Addis Ababa University, presented a research poster titled “Reliability Analysis of a Micro-Hydro-Based Microgrid Due to the Integration of a Solar PV System: The Case of Chipopoma Microgrid, Malawi” at the American Solar Energy Society Conference, hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder from August 4–6, 2025.

New film on Renewable Energy Short Course for Female Technicians & Engineers

15th July, 2025

This short film provides an overview of training delivered by The Test and Training Center for Renewable Energy Technologies at Mzuzu University in Malawi for two cohorts of female engineers.

With women engineers or technicians in sub-Saharan Africa accounting for only 20% of trainees and Malawian women’s participation in the energy sector being very low despite women appearing to be the most significant energy users, it was decided to run a training course specifically targeted at women to try and combat this imbalance.