Energy for Growth Hub: Grantee Spotlight (2025)

Grantee spotlight: Energy for Growth Hub

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to the Energy for Growth Hub to support its work in various areas, including contract transparency for clean energy markets; nuclear financing in low- and middle income countries (LMICs); and U.S. policy research and education. The Energy for Growth Hub is a U.S.-based think tank working to end energy poverty and build a high-energy climate resilient future for everyone.

The Energy for Growth Hub’s work falls within our philanthropic strategy of supporting a clean energy transition in LMICs. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including potential risks and co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: October 2025

What is the Energy for Growth Hub?

The Energy for Growth Hub, founded in 2018, is a U.S.-based think tank with a global network of researchers and advocates. It focuses on promoting energy abundance and climate resilience through policy research and education, as well as thought leadership. Its efforts center on four key areas:

• Developing progress indicators that link economic growth to ending energy poverty.
• Exploring opportunities for low-carbon technologies in emerging markets, especially in Asia and Africa.
• Promoting open, competitive clean energy markets and effective development finance.
• Analyzing how climate, energy, and development policies intersect.

What are we funding, and how could it help address climate change?

Contract transparency: In many LMICs, power contracts between utilities and private developers are often hidden from the public. This lack of transparency slows clean energy progress, keeps prices artificially high, raises investment risks, and blocks fair comparison of energy options. The Energy for Growth Hub and its partners advocate for greater transparency from both government leaders and civil society, in order to help avoid carbon lock-in and speed up the clean energy transition.

The Energy for Growth Hub would use increased funding to broaden bottom-up support for contract disclosure by working with local partners in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Indonesia, and regional groupings in the South Pacific and Caribbean. It would also seek international backing via the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Open Government Partnership, or fora such as the G7 or G20.

Nuclear financing in emerging markets: The Energy for Growth Hub, with a partner organization, has mapped nuclear markets and cooperation agreements to help make the case for nuclear to policymakers. They argue that future demand for advanced nuclear power will come from LMICs, and new financing tools are needed to support this. Investing in nuclear power abroad could cut emissions by replacing or avoiding new fossil fuel plants.

The Energy for Growth Hub would use additional resources to help shape a World Bank trust fund to build internal expertise and begin providing technical assistance, push to lift nuclear bans at the Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank, and support Ghana’s efforts to become the first country in Africa to acquire a small modular reactor.

U.S. policy research and education: The Energy for Growth Hub has worked alongside a partner organization to propose Energy Security Compacts (ESCs), which are multi-year U.S. investments to strengthen energy security in allied countries. These compacts would outline key reforms and investments, followed by long-term support and oversight. ESCs could reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they lead to faster buildout of clean energy.

The Energy for Growth Hub updated its ESC plan to align with the Trump administration’s priorities and supports energy security as a core objective of the proposed Development Finance Corporation reauthorization bill. With more resources, the Energy for Growth Hub aims to shape the rollout, encourage new power sector compacts in selected LMICs through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and push for ESCs by linking global energy investment to U.S. national interests.

Why do we think the Energy for Growth Hub will use this funding well?

The Energy for Growth Hub has made steady progress on the three core areas we funded in its 2024 grant. It expanded its global Power Purchase Agreement Transparency scores from 12 to 23 countries and worked with partners like the Asian Development Bank to embed transparency into clean energy deployment strategies. Additionally, we think the Energy for Growth Hub’s advocacy helped lead to the World Bank ending its ban on nuclear support.

We believe the Energy for Growth Hub will use new funding effectively. It has shown it can develop bold, practical policy ideas and apply them globally. Its focus on strategic, often overlooked issues suggests that additional funding would help expand its impact where others are not yet active.

Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our top nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.