Off Grid Solutions and Microgrid Solutions In Rural Africa​
Empowering Communities
Off Grid Solutions and Microgrid Solutions In Rural Africa
What are microgrids and how are they different from the traditional energy generation to solving energy poverty in Africa?
To begin with, there is a reason why 600,000 million people in Africa don not have access to energy and this problem the lack of definition of energy for the purpose of getting it to the people that need it.
Microgrids are great method to deliver power to cities and urban areas that already have distribution systems, however microgrids will not solve the problem of areas that have no access to electricity. The reason for the lack of energy access to the 600,000 million people in Africa is because they cannot afford it; this reason is in two parts. The first case is that the utility companies cannot afford providing energy to those villages because it is too expensive to deliver power to the huge amount remote areas in Africa and even if they could afford to do this, they would have to charge a lot of money for it. Our philosophy is that electricity is critical but something that has no value by itself, these villages based on research need a lot more than electricity. Microgrids cannot help underserved population nor the offgrid people, it can only help lower the cost for areas that already have electricity, it would help improve the reliability of the grid system. In Andy’s opinion, the people in the underserved area he called the left behind are their target market and they have tremendous ability to contribute to the global economy and community.
The definition for electricity is complex, there are two types of electricity; the alternating current and the direct current AC vs DC
Overview of technology for rural villages
It is a direct current and low voltage of 48 volts DIY infrastructure developed that the villages can easily implement by themselves. This technology eliminates cost of installation among others, they are safe, sustainable and easy to deploy. This technology encourages the recognition and inclusion of the rural dwellers in this solution implementation and energy production.
What has the company done differently to recognize the agency of people in the rural communities
According to Steve Jobs, the initial action before developing a product would be to go to the customers which are the villagers in this case and find out what they need, work on your technology to meet their needs rather than taking what is on the shelf and shoving it down on the customer.
The solution for Africa is not just electrification, there are health challenges, lack of clean water, unemployment. The VAULTe mission is the five pillars of infrastructure: job creation, health system, water purification, green house technologies to create other forms nutrition to boost their health. This electrification would also foster job creation for these villagers and aid economic development.
What has the company done differently to recognize the agency of people in the rural communities
According to Steve Jobs, the initial action before developing a product would be to go to the customers which are the villagers in this case and find out what they need, work on your technology to meet their needs rather than taking what is on the shelf and shoving it down on the customer.
The solution for Africa is not just electrification, there are health challenges, lack of clean water, unemployment. The VAULTe mission is the five pillars of infrastructure: job creation, health system, water purification, green house technologies to create other forms nutrition to boost their health. This electrification would also foster job creation for these villagers and aid economic development.
The motivation
The motivation is the need to save the people of these off-grid villages, enhancing better outcomes for them. The world doesn’t invest in where they do not see profitability rather than building a future for these rural areas. These challenges can be associated to bad political leadership and lack of integrity to serve others.
How have the lives of people been impacted from the lens of sustainability
There is no straight answer to that because the existing deployment in the village is a pilot, however, the short answer is that beyond deploying the electrification technology, we are committed to facilitating and ensuring the success of these villages across the five pillars of infrastructure. I also aim to assist the community through mentorship for student, a current project being worked on is a digital hen coup, a collaborative effort of high school and college students in Kenya. We named this invention a proving group and we hope to deploy it in the villages. This project talks about the power of collaboration and youths and older people mentoring the young ones to grow. The young people have the ambition and the older ones have the knowledge, it is important and an obligation for the old people to mentor the young ones to fruition, give them the space to grow. From darkness comes light, businesses need to think beyond their ready-made product and profitability and begin to actually work on identifying the needs of the people and tailor solutions perfect to meeting these needs.
It is crucial to understand that there a lot of potholes to navigate towards identifying the real problems and creating solutions to solve these problems. There is need to see beyond the bottom-line benefits for the companies. Money has driven many populations to many griefs
Why does sustainability have to be a thing only if we can see the financial returns before it is supported?
I’ll give you an example, it’s a conversation I heard in Africa, it got me wondering as to why a nation like Africa should be worried with Carbon credit, it shouldn’t be a topic of focus in a continent like Africa that has issues generating reliable electricity, the focus should rather be on finding ways to generating affordable and reliable electricity in a sustainable way. Sustainability begins at the grassroot level, it begins to understand what pollutes the world, the cement is a big polluter and clothing industry is one of the biggest polluters. The fashion industry has three to four seasons, we need to change how the fashion industry works, how we wear clothes-we have to be wearing like green-clothes, making sustainable clothing materials, producing and using clothing materials in green way with green energy.
There are prospects, the villages give us great foundation to build a new society, its’s a clean slate, they don’t have anything, we can build from grounds up, we are going it make it green, clean and sustainable. The communities need like a new government, they need a social system that the whole community can benefit from. We need to figure out a social system that is sustainable and equitable where everyone can benefit, a system the old people can enjoy the perks of the young people’s agility and strength. A sustainable community is what we dream about building even though we aim to make money which isn’t wrong. The cost would be about $12 a monthly which according to our research team is their monthly cost of kerosene for them. We need to start giving them the tools to build their lives rather than throwing money a them.
In my opinion, one of the most important components to change Africa, that has to be done is female empowerment, females have to be allowed to lead to effect change, they can do the better job, it is so much needed to empowerment, they are more sensitive, soft. They are mothers to the children and can be a mother to the country likewise.
Speaker:
Andy Perk
Company:
VAULTe global
Start Date:
12.07.2023
Research Duration:
6 Month
Location:
Los Angeles
Share Research:
Contact