• New initiative will test whether growing demand for AI and other digital workloads can serve as an anchor customer for otherwise underutilized mini-grids in Africa
• Projections show that initial demonstrations, including in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo could expand or strengthen reliable electricity access for approximately 85,000 local people
• Independent evaluation will inform whether this new approach can improve the economics of providing electricity without making community electricity less affordable or reliable

NEW YORK | September 24, 2026 - Today, the Mission 300 Accelerator housed in RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC), the charitable affiliate of The Rockefeller Foundation, announced the Emergent Grid Project, a new to test whether growing global demand for compute - the processing power needed to run AI and other digital work - can improve the economics of distributed renewable energy and help expand affordable, reliable electricity access in underserved communities across Africa.

As rapid growth in AI and data-center demand puts increasing pressure on electricity systems globally, the Emergent Grid is testing a different proposition: whether flexible AI and digital computing demand can be put to work in places where electricity systems need more support.

"Global demand for compute doesn't have to push electricity costs higher for people. We think it can actually do the opposite," said Mission 300 Accelerator CEO Andrew Herscowitz. "If we build it right, that same demand becomes the reason someone in a remote village finally gets reliable, affordable power. We call this the Emergent Grid: connecting global demand for compute with communities where that demand could help make reliable electricity more viable."

More than 560 million people across sub-Saharan Africa still live without access to electricity, even as the continent faces a broader annual development financing gap of more than $400 billion. Closing the energy access gap will require mobilizing significantly more private investment alongside public and development finance. Yet Africa faces a structural challenge: mini-grids are often built with capacity to accommodate future demand, leaving power generation underutilized during their early years of operation and increasing reliance on scarce grants and subsidies, even as surrounding communities continue to need more reliable, affordable electricity.

The Emergent Grid aims to turn underutilized electricity into an economic asset. The idea is simple: The demonstrations will test placing small amounts of computing capacity alongside African mini-grids, using electricity that might otherwise go unused - or developing new generation to serve both the community and digital demand, and sell that computing capacity to paying customers. That payment creates a potentially profitable revenue stream for the energy system while lowering costs. If the model works, those revenues could reduce subsidy requirements, strengthen project finances, and help attract more private investment to expand electricity access. Because the computing load is flexible, it can be reduced or shifted when electricity is needed by the local community.

The demonstrations will be guided by four principles:

• Community first: Households, businesses, schools, health clinics, and other essential services always have priority for electricity. Compute should strengthen community electricity access, never compete with it, and deliver meaningful benefits for surrounding communities.
• Compute is a tool, not the objective: The goal is reliable, affordable electricity for underserved communities and the opportunities that access enables.
• Digital demand can be a bridge: Compute can provide an anchor customer for mini-grids, generating steadier revenue while local household and business demand grows. As community electricity use increases, compute can be reduced, shifted, or potentially relocated, or electricity generation can be scaled.
• Test before scaling: The project is designed to generate evidence before advocating for broader replication or scale.

The Emergent Grid will test the model through an initial portfolio, including in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Kenya, five sites will test whether flexible computing can serve as an anchor for new solar-plus-storage systems serving communities of approximately 50,000 people. In DRC, computing will be added to an existing solar plant with underused generation that currently serves more than 30,000 people, as well as more than 350 small and medium-sized businesses and 30-40 social institutions. In Sierra Leone, computing will be integrated in three rural sites that serve local communities but have underused generation capacity.

Across the demonstrations, the project will test four fundamental questions: whether the model works technically; whether it generates enough additional revenue to improve mini-grid economics and brings down costs; whether it delivers meaningful benefits for communities; and, ultimately, whether successful approaches can attract investment and be replicated and scaled with less or no philanthropic support.

Independent monitoring, evaluation, and learning will assess technical, financial, and community outcomes, including electricity affordability and reliability, project economics, electricity access, and broader socioeconomic impacts.

Reliable electricity can support local businesses and essential services, while the connectivity required for many computing workloads could also expand access to digital financial services, commerce, education, and healthcare. The project will explore whether combining better electricity and connectivity can create broader economic opportunities for the communities these systems serve.

"Building rural power systems is only part of the challenge as we work to bring electricity to communities in Africa. The broader issue is ensuring those systems remain financially and operationally sustainable to deliver long-term benefits. This initiative is testing a practical idea that could help strengthen both." - Kate Steel, Senior Vice President, NRECA International

"Africa's energy and digital access gaps have long been treated as separate challenges, but they are deeply connected. The Emergent Grid gives us an opportunity to test what becomes possible when we address them together, creating stronger infrastructure, unlocking investment and expanding access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity." - Ibrahima Guimba-Saïdou, CEO of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa (PDAA)

The Emergent Grid is being developed by the Mission 300 Accelerator working alongside philanthropies, developers, researchers, and technical experts, as part of The Rockefeller Foundation's work to expand energy access and test new approaches to financing distributed infrastructure. The initiative builds on the Accelerator's work supporting Mission 300, the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, while testing whether this model could ultimately contribute to expanding reliable, affordable electricity access at scale.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world, including in association with RF Catalytic Capital Inc (RFCC). We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation, X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and YouTube @rockefellerfound, and sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe.

• New initiative will test whether growing demand for AI and other digital workloads can serve as an anchor customer for otherwise underutilized mini-grids in Africa
• Projections show that initial demonstrations, including in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo could expand or strengthen reliable electricity access for approximately 85,000 local people
• Independent evaluation will inform whether this new approach can improve the economics of providing electricity without making community electricity less affordable or reliable

NEW YORK | September 24, 2026 - Today, the Mission 300 Accelerator housed in RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC), the charitable affiliate of The Rockefeller Foundation, announced the Emergent Grid Project, a new to test whether growing global demand for compute - the processing power needed to run AI and other digital work - can improve the economics of distributed renewable energy and help expand affordable, reliable electricity access in underserved communities across Africa.

As rapid growth in AI and data-center demand puts increasing pressure on electricity systems globally, the Emergent Grid is testing a different proposition: whether flexible AI and digital computing demand can be put to work in places where electricity systems need more support.

"Global demand for compute doesn't have to push electricity costs higher for people. We think it can actually do the opposite," said Mission 300 Accelerator CEO Andrew Herscowitz. "If we build it right, that same demand becomes the reason someone in a remote village finally gets reliable, affordable power. We call this the Emergent Grid: connecting global demand for compute with communities where that demand could help make reliable electricity more viable."

More than 560 million people across sub-Saharan Africa still live without access to electricity, even as the continent faces a broader annual development financing gap of more than $400 billion. Closing the energy access gap will require mobilizing significantly more private investment alongside public and development finance. Yet Africa faces a structural challenge: mini-grids are often built with capacity to accommodate future demand, leaving power generation underutilized during their early years of operation and increasing reliance on scarce grants and subsidies, even as surrounding communities continue to need more reliable, affordable electricity.

The Emergent Grid aims to turn underutilized electricity into an economic asset. The idea is simple: The demonstrations will test placing small amounts of computing capacity alongside African mini-grids, using electricity that might otherwise go unused - or developing new generation to serve both the community and digital demand, and sell that computing capacity to paying customers. That payment creates a potentially profitable revenue stream for the energy system while lowering costs. If the model works, those revenues could reduce subsidy requirements, strengthen project finances, and help attract more private investment to expand electricity access. Because the computing load is flexible, it can be reduced or shifted when electricity is needed by the local community.

The demonstrations will be guided by four principles:

• Community first: Households, businesses, schools, health clinics, and other essential services always have priority for electricity. Compute should strengthen community electricity access, never compete with it, and deliver meaningful benefits for surrounding communities.
• Compute is a tool, not the objective: The goal is reliable, affordable electricity for underserved communities and the opportunities that access enables.
• Digital demand can be a bridge: Compute can provide an anchor customer for mini-grids, generating steadier revenue while local household and business demand grows. As community electricity use increases, compute can be reduced, shifted, or potentially relocated, or electricity generation can be scaled.
• Test before scaling: The project is designed to generate evidence before advocating for broader replication or scale.

The Emergent Grid will test the model through an initial portfolio, including in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Kenya, five sites will test whether flexible computing can serve as an anchor for new solar-plus-storage systems serving communities of approximately 50,000 people. In DRC, computing will be added to an existing solar plant with underused generation that currently serves more than 30,000 people, as well as more than 350 small and medium-sized businesses and 30-40 social institutions. In Sierra Leone, computing will be integrated in three rural sites that serve local communities but have underused generation capacity.

Across the demonstrations, the project will test four fundamental questions: whether the model works technically; whether it generates enough additional revenue to improve mini-grid economics and brings down costs; whether it delivers meaningful benefits for communities; and, ultimately, whether successful approaches can attract investment and be replicated and scaled with less or no philanthropic support.

Independent monitoring, evaluation, and learning will assess technical, financial, and community outcomes, including electricity affordability and reliability, project economics, electricity access, and broader socioeconomic impacts.

Reliable electricity can support local businesses and essential services, while the connectivity required for many computing workloads could also expand access to digital financial services, commerce, education, and healthcare. The project will explore whether combining better electricity and connectivity can create broader economic opportunities for the communities these systems serve.

"Building rural power systems is only part of the challenge as we work to bring electricity to communities in Africa. The broader issue is ensuring those systems remain financially and operationally sustainable to deliver long-term benefits. This initiative is testing a practical idea that could help strengthen both." - Kate Steel, Senior Vice President, NRECA International

"Africa's energy and digital access gaps have long been treated as separate challenges, but they are deeply connected. The Emergent Grid gives us an opportunity to test what becomes possible when we address them together, creating stronger infrastructure, unlocking investment and expanding access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity." - Ibrahima Guimba-Saïdou, CEO of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa (PDAA)

The Emergent Grid is being developed by the Mission 300 Accelerator working alongside philanthropies, developers, researchers, and technical experts, as part of The Rockefeller Foundation's work to expand energy access and test new approaches to financing distributed infrastructure. The initiative builds on the Accelerator's work supporting Mission 300, the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, while testing whether this model could ultimately contribute to expanding reliable, affordable electricity access at scale.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world, including in association with RF Catalytic Capital Inc (RFCC). We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation, X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and YouTube @rockefellerfound, and sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe.