The paper is concerned with the development of better gender analytic tools to mainstream gender in energy project and programme planning. It begins by explaining why it is important to take a gender aware approach in the planning of energy projects and programmes, and why gender is so often ignored. It proposes that improved gender analysis tools could be designed which also make women’s energy more visible. It then reviews at some length the general shortcomings of the standard gender tools as used in development planning, particularly their failure to identify the gender goals that underlie the intervention, and critiques a number of approaches have been proposed for the energy sector. This leads to suggestions for an improved model, which is then outlined.