Business
Portable Solar Power Finds a Market in Rural Africa
Persistent Energy Ghana’s pay-as-you go solar systems also give off-grid customers access to lighting, mobile phone charging, and appliances such as TVs and radios.Its Solar Associate program also creates jobs in target communities. The company was formed in 2013 when Impact Energies was absorbed into Persistent Energy Partners, a New York City-based company that specializes in selling and leasing renewable energy systems to low-income markets in Africa.
Impact Energies had been a leader in selling and leasing solar home systems through microfinancing banks in West Africa since 2011. It served 30,000 poor customers in two years in Ghana communities where the average earnings are $1-to-$6 a day, the company said.
The Persistent Energy Ghana team is now using its experience in Ghana to roll out village solar micro grids and pay-as-you-go solar home systems in the Eastern and greater Accra regions of Ghana. According to the company, Persistent Energy’s challenge is “to take this proven technology and rapidly build an organization in a different market.” Persistent Energy Ghana said will begin scaling up in June with plans to reach 5,000 households by 2015 and more than 25,000 households by 2016.
Solar Powered Computers
Sustainable Computers – a business based at the University of Nottingham Innovation Park — and U.K.-based Solar Ready Ltd. have taken a different approach, developing distributed solar power for computer systems being used by students in Africa in self-contained classrooms. “Our Solar Ready solutions are emerging technologies,” said Tony Winfield, managing director of Sustainable Computers Ltd. in an AFKInsider interview. “We are currently engaging with clients from The Gambia down to South Africa.”
Working with Solar Ready Ltd., Winfield combined his background in education with their technology that operates completely off grid using direct and stored power from roof-mounted solar panels. The modular desk houses the main technology units including the battery banks and air conditioning, Winfield told AFKInsider. “This configuration not only makes the technology secure and safe, but the cooling also helps to prolong the life of the IT equipment.”
Winfield said the system provides sustainable local storage solutions while reducing energy use. “This is a totally new approach to the energy challenges faced by Africa and elsewhere. The interest in our solutions has come from all over Africa,” Winfield said. Sustainable Computers is collaborating with nine countries participating in the IOP for Africa project developed with the University of Nottingham and the Institute of Physics.
The IOP teacher-training project in Ethiopia has been running for six years. In partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, it has been introducing practical physics to the syllabus through training sessions with teachers in Addis Ababa. Teachers travel in from all over Ethiopia and then return to their regions to share what they learned with colleagues for use in the classroom. Where possible, they are provided with physics equipment to use with their students.
