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

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.

New film on community energy in Ethiopia

13th June, 2025

This is a film about community energy in Ethiopia. It concentrates on 3 community projects who use energy systems for cooking and lighting.

New journal article - Harnessing the sun

10th June, 2025

CESET Co-Investigator Joshua Kirshner and his colleague have published a new open access article entitled "Harnessing the sun – addressing sociotechnical barriers to off-grid solar power deployment in Mozambique" in Innovation and Development, 1–20.

The research was done as part of a project funded by UK Aid - FCDO which overlapped with the early part of CESET. The paper draws on work done in CESET, including by Lorraine Howe and Carlos Shenga from CPGD on the new off-grid energy regulation.