CREDiT

Co-Designing Clean Energy for Rural Africa with Service Innovations and Digital Twins in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia.

Over 567 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, despite abundant renewable resources. Many solar systems fail due to poor design, lack of maintenance, and weak governance. CREDiT was set up to address this gap through integrated socio-technical solutions.

CREDiT (Co-Designing Clean Energy for Rural Africa with Service Innovations and Digital Twins) is a UKRI-funded initiative led by the University of York. Working with communities and partners at demonstration sites in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia, the project is developing community-centred solar mini-grid systems using participatory design, digital technologies and innovative service-based business models to deliver reliable, affordable and sustainable energy access.

A defining innovation of CREDiT is that the solar mini-grids are designed not simply to be installed and left behind, but to remain visible, intelligent and supportable long after the funded project has ended. Remote monitoring will provide continuous, 24/7 insight into system performance, with data feeding advanced Digital Twins developed by the University of York. These virtual representations will enable partners to monitor system health, identify emerging problems, optimise performance and explore future scenarios — from changing energy demand and battery performance to equipment upgrades, renewable generation and expansion of the mini-grid.

Crucially, CREDiT will transfer the knowledge, tools and expertise to local partners and communities so they can use these capabilities themselves. The ambition is to establish a new approach to rural energy infrastructure in which systems can be maintained, adapted and enhanced for 10, 20 years and beyond, helping communities protect the value of today's investment while responding to tomorrow's energy needs.