Hope Power – Idris and Sabrina Elba are backing a renewables-led eco city plan for Sherbro, aiming for cleaner power, better water access and stronger local connectivity.
On a small island off Sierra Leone, Idris Elba is no longer just a celebrity with a global profile. He has become, by his hosts’ account, a bridge-builder for a long-term plan to remake energy and infrastructure in the place that will ultimately power thousands of daily lives.
Together with Sabrina Dhowre Elba. he is helping drive what they describe as the Hope Power Project. an effort to turn Sherbro into a renewably powered. more self-reliant eco city.. The plan, designed as a three-year roadmap, is being built in partnership with British power company Octopus Energy Generation.. Beyond electricity, it also includes investment in connectivity and efforts to improve access to clean water.
At the center of the project is a hybrid power system that combines a wind farm with solar panels and batteries.. The wind component is expected to be running later this summer. featuring five wind turbines alongside the solar and storage setup.. The goal is to supply power to nearly 1. 500 homes and businesses on the island. serving roughly 15. 000 islanders through a smaller grid based in Sherbro’s chief port and commercial center. Bonthe.
Octopus Energy Generation’s CEO. Zoisa North-Bond. said the project required a new approach to power infrastructure for Sherbro. one that differs from models used in European cities.. The work. she said. depends on doing it in step with Sierra Leone’s government and local communities. rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all design.
North-Bond also credited Elba with helping align the different parties involved.. “Idris has been this absolutely extraordinary diplomat in helping us bring that together,” she said.. She added that he was even named a chief on the island. a detail the project team points to as a symbol of local buy-in rather than outside involvement.
The effort is framed as part of a wider government push to expand electricity access.. Sierra Leone’s goals. as described by the project. are to raise national electricity access to 78% of the population. or 720. 000 households. by 2030. up from 36% in 2025.. Over the same period, the country is aiming to increase the renewable component of its energy mix to 52% from 46%.
For the Elbas, the project is also about shifting how the world talks about Africa.. Idris Elba argues that the relationship is too often portrayed as one-directional: a continent assumed to be in permanent need of aid.. “Africa is seen as a place that always needs aid,” he said.. “Interestingly enough. the world needs Africa more than Africa needs the world. because it’s rich in resources.” He cites not just commodities such as oil and minerals. but also what he describes as a deep pool of young talent.
Sabrina Dhowre Elba said African countries do not lack answers to their own problems. What’s missing, in her view, is political will and funding to carry solutions through. “That’s something that we wanted to address with our organization,” she said.
Their approach, she and Elba have suggested, begins by listening. The couple see their role as taking what communities say they need and turning it into a voice that can be heard in the decision-making spaces where policy is shaped.
They stress that what is happening now is only the beginning.. In time. they want Elba Hope to evolve from a project-led effort into something with a broader influence. eventually becoming an adviser to governments and other leaders based on experiences. learnings. and perspectives drawn from their work.. Elba said he does not want the effort to be treated as charity.. “I don’t want us to be a charity.. I want us to maybe be a think tank,” he said.
He acknowledged that the couple are often invited into rooms where they are not seen as formally qualified.. Yet he argued that caring and attention can still translate into change.. “We get called into so many rooms that. technically. we aren’t qualified to speak in—but it turns out. if you care. sometimes that caring in the room makes a lot of change.”
Idris Elba philanthropy Sabrina Dhowre Elba Hope Power Project Sherbro eco city Octopus Energy Generation Sierra Leone electricity renewable energy