Stuti Dubey is the Executive Director of the D-REC Organization, a groundbreaking initiative that is helping bring clean electricity to local communities that aren’t connected to traditional power grids.

D-RECs (Distributed Renewable Energy Certificates) are high-impact verification labels that enable small-scale renewable energy systems to participate in the I-REC economy. They provide Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) project developers with an additional revenue source and give companies that want to make a social and environmental impact a standardised way of financing distributed energy projects.

Stuti joined the first EvTalks symposium in South Africa as a panellist in November 2024, where she outlined how D-RECs are helping to advance distributed renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa, where 600 million people lack access to electricity. She expands on this important topic in this interview.

What inspired the creation of D-RECs?

D-RECs were inspired by an ambitious vision: bridging two critical global challenges, climate change and energy inequality. In 2019, a diverse group, including Bboxx, South Pole, IBM-Hyperledger, Shell Foundation, and the UK government, carried out a joint study into climate finance for the off-grid sector. They realised that achieving universal clean energy access required a new approach to financing high-impact renewable energy projects in underserved regions.

At the same time, Powertrust, a Canadian start-up, was working on a similar problem, looking at how to include high-impact DRE projects in global markets. This study united Powertrust and South Pole with a common goal: to develop an effective market tool aimed at addressing two critical global issues, access to clean energy and climate finance in underserved areas, resulting in the establishment of the D-REC Initiative in 2020.

Officially launched in March 2021, the D-REC Initiative swiftly evolved into a collaborative platform. More than 60 global stakeholders, from climate investors and corporations to technology providers and local energy developers, contributed to the design of the innovative instrument, D-RECs, along with the open-source technology platform necessary to achieve the envisioned scale.

The D-REC Initiative has now evolved from a proof-of-concept initiative into a formal organisation with independent governance, the D-REC Organization, to reflect our growth. I was onboarded into the organisation in 2023 to lead this transition and to help us achieve our objective of mobilising USD 100 million of additional D-REC revenue by 2030.

How do D-RECs address challenges in distributed renewable energy adoption in the Global South?

Distributed renewable energy (DRE) solutions - such as solar mini-grids and off-grid solar - are ideal for rapidly bringing clean, reliable power to underserved communities. Yet, these impactful projects frequently face significant barriers, including limited visibility, high participation costs, and difficulties accessing global climate finance.

D-RECs tackle these challenges head-on by providing a credible verification label that clearly communicates both the renewable energy generated and its tangible community benefits. By connecting these local solutions with global corporate sustainability commitments, D-RECs create essential financial incentives that enable project viability, scale-up, and sustained growth — transforming aspirations for universal clean energy access into measurable, lasting impact.

How does your mission tie into broader goals of energy equity and a just energy transition?

We’re working to solve two sides of the same problem. One is the lack of clean energy access, energy security and equity in the Global South, which needs climate finance to be solved. On the other side, philanthropic finance and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) cannot sustain the finance needed, this is where D-RECs can help.

D-RECs are sold with a premium which goes to DRE project developers to support the continuation of their projects. This money also helps to de-risk projects, which encourages further investment in DRE, bringing electricity to some of the world’s most energy poor communities.

In just a few years, with the help of our implementation partners, we’ve been able to bring in approximately 400 GWh of contracts, including long-term offtake contracts from over ten global corporate buyers.

Could you provide some examples of where D-RECs have had positive socio-economic and environmental benefits?

D-RECs have helped to fund solar pumps in India which are used by farmers for irrigation. This has helped improve agricultural produce and/or yields, as well as making farmers less reliant on diesel, which is both polluting and more expensive. This has delivered several social, economic and environmental benefits, including food security, reduced emissions, economic growth, improved productivity and clean water.

In another D-REC project, solar panels were installed on the roof of a community centre run by local women in Guatemala.

This enabled them to install computers and have access to the internet for the first time, boosting digital inclusion and improving digital literacy.

D-RECs were also able to bring electricity to 3,000 people in Haiti for the first time, I can’t imagine what it must be like seeing a bulb light up when you’ve never had electricity before. It’s stories like this that stay with me and make me realise the impact of distributed renewable energy projects and the work we do.

What opportunities do you see for the expansion of D-RECs, and what challenges are you facing in scaling them?

Our key goal is to reach 3,500 GWh by 2030, a value of USD 100 million, which would uplift 3.5 million people to the Modern Energy Minimum of 1,000 KWh per person per year.

Achieving this won’t be easy, but renewable energy is becoming more accessible, and we no longer need to make the case for renewables, the vast majority understand the need for a clean energy transition. This presents us with an opportunity, and if we’re able to do our job right then we can create green markets that are attractive to corporates and will unlock more climate finance.

Motivating corporates to sustain their participation in these markets will be a challenge, but it can be achieved. Trust is a key part of this. One of the things we’re doing is trying to bring trust, credibility and traceability to these markets, so that corporate buyers have confidence that this money was actually invested, and that it went to where they were told it would go.

Putting all of this together, I can see that we have a lot of work to do, but it is much easier today than it was yesterday, and I am confident that we can create a sustained, robust and transparent market to help support the energy transition. This really is the light at the end of the tunnel.

What drew you personally to work with D-RECs and the D-REC Organization?

For me, this work is deeply personal. I’ve spent years advising organisations on how to design transformation strategies, including sustainability strategies, but I wanted to do more than offer advice. I wanted to be part of building something real — something that could shift systems and direct resources to where they are most needed.

During my Executive MBA at HEC Paris, I studied energy transition in depth, particularly the role of distributed energy in shaping more resilient and inclusive futures. That was the first time I truly understood the transformative potential of distributed renewables. It was also the first time I realised how significantly disconnected global climate finance was from the local realities of energy access. Later, I joined the Climate and Business Certificate programme, which provided a more structured lens on climate finance, emissions accounting, and decarbonisation strategies across sectors. It also reinforced a belief I already held, that ensuring equity in the energy transition is one of the most crucial challenges of our time.

So, when I came across the opportunity at the D-REC Organization, it felt aligned in every possible way, with my values, experience, and desire to help shape solutions that are technically sound, financially credible, and grounded in real-world impact.

But it wasn’t just the strategy that drew me in. It was the people, the energy entrepreneurs working in extremely hard conditions, the buyers looking to make their capital meaningful, and the communities that deserve more than temporary access. They deserve reliability. They deserve dignity.

I often remind myself that I can never truly understand what it feels like to flip a switch and see the light come on for the very first time. But I do know what it means to help make that possible, and that’s what drew me to this work.