The International Renewable Energy Agency has launched the fourth edition of its NewGen Renewable Energy Accelerator, opening a new round of support for young entrepreneurs building renewable energy innovations across emerging and developing markets. The 2026 application window runs from April 6 to May 3, with selected participants expected to be announced on May 18.
The program is designed to back early-stage and growth-stage ventures working on the energy transition, and it is open to start-ups worldwide whose founders are between 18 and 35 years old. IRENA said the accelerator offers structured capacity building, mentorship and tailored technical support, with implementation backed by the Government of the United Arab Emirates and delivered with Social Alpha and the Enel Foundation. Social Alpha is a non-profit based in India that supports science- and technology-driven social enterprises, while the Enel Foundation is a global non-profit think tank focused on energy transition and climate action.
The fourth edition comes after a last cycle that included 13 start-ups from different regions, including six women-led ventures and three IRENA Rising Stars Award winners. Among the award-winning solutions were battery-swapping networks developed in Bangladesh, solar-powered cooling technologies and edible coating innovations from Uganda aimed at reducing food loss, and artificial intelligence-driven precision farming solutions from Zambia designed to improve agricultural efficiency and climate resilience.
Two founders from past cohorts said the accelerator changed how they approached their work. Stuti Kakkar of Meine Energy in India said it helped refine her organisation’s understanding of renewable energy markets, while access to global founders, expert insights and market perspectives helped her team better identify where its technology could have the greatest impact in the clean energy transition. Oliver Mbuzi of Netagrow in Zambia said the program strengthened his team’s approach to climate-smart agriculture, helped integrate clean energy and artificial intelligence into its agricultural solutions, and connected the venture with global experts and partners.
The tension for the new cohort is not whether clean energy ideas exist; it is whether promising young ventures can turn them into workable businesses quickly enough to matter in real markets. IRENA is betting that the next four months of mentorship, technical support and exposure to investors and peers can help do that, and that the next group of selected start-ups will widen the program’s reach beyond its earlier mix of battery swapping, food-loss reduction and precision farming projects.
The accelerator remains one of IRENA’s youth-focused efforts to support clean energy entrepreneurship, but its test this year is broader: whether a program built to nurture innovation can keep producing ventures that move from promising prototypes to services used at scale by farmers, households and businesses.
