Author's posts
Jun 02 2023
Borehole Solarisation and Payment Enforcement in Rural Tanzania
SVRG is carrying this InnovateUK Energy catalyst round 9 project out together with our Tanzanian partners, OMASI, and an additional partner from Uganda, ApTech Africa ltd, to build on the success of our original ECR6 Sustainable Integrated Community Energy innovation project. Project Overview From 2019-2022 in Northern Tanzania, SVRG and OMASI collaborated on an Energy …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/borehole-solarisation-and-payment-enforcement-in-rural-tanzania/
Jun 02 2023
Pay-N-Pump 2.0 – adding storage to mobile solar irrigation systems
SVRG is carrying this InnovateUK Energy catalyst round 9 project out together with our Ugandan partners, ApTech Africa ltd, to build on the success of our original ECR7 Pay-N-Pump innovation project. Project Overview PAY-N-PUMP is an innovative smart digital pay-as-you-go water-pumping and irrigation solution for small scale farmers in Uganda, built in a push-cart format, …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/pay-n-pump-2-0-adding-storage-to-mobile-solar-irrigation-systems/
May 11 2023
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 3 Report
2022 has been a busy year for our project, and especially for our partners Chemolex. With COVID restrictions ending, it has been possible not just to remove record quantities of plastic wastes from the rivers in and around Nairobi, and innovate new designs for equipment to help with the job, but also the public engagement …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/removing-plastic-from-kenyas-rivers-year-3-report/
Mar 01 2023
SVI: Workshop Reports compilation
The Smart Villages Initiative researched and published 37 workshop reports between 2014 and 2017. For ease of reference, they can all be accessed here.
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/svi-workshop-reports-compilation/
Mar 01 2023
SVI Technical Reports compilation
The Smart Villages Initiative researched and published 15 technical reports between 2012 and 2017. For ease of reference, they can all be accessed here.
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/svi-technical-reports-compilation/
Feb 09 2022
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 2 Report
We were so excited to be able to join our Kenyan partners Chemolex again in September 2021, once international travel restrictions had begun to ease, to see the tremendous progress being made on river plastic cleanup, and to sit down together to solve some interesting challenges in the project. Once again, amazing results have been …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/removing-plastic-from-kenyas-rivers-year-2-report/
Jun 28 2021
Testing COMET on the ground in Somaliland
Exciting news – after an the international travel problems with COVID, our international consortium of partners was finally able to test the new COMET system (Community Energy Toolkit – formerly known as the Minigrid Game) in our target communities in Somaliland – Lughaya, Bali Dhiig and Qool Caday. We will post an update later about …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/testing-comet-on-the-ground-in-somaliland/
May 15 2021
Electricity is not a service…
… in the context of the Service Value Test (SVT), a key tool in the Smart Villages approach which engages community members to uncover their needs and aspirations for the future development of their village. It’s an important early step when we start working with a new community, and the quantitative and qualitative data about …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/electricity-is-not-a-service/
Apr 03 2021
The Service Value Test – what it is and why we use it
The Service Value Test (SVT for short) is a key tool in the Smart Villages approach that we like to use as early as possible in our conversations with communities we are looking to work with. We find it really helpful for the following reasons: It gets us quantitative preference data from community members telling …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/the-service-value-test-what-and-why/
Mar 04 2021
Martin Kariongi, in his own words
As we remember our friend, Martin Saning’o Kariongi, who passed away this week from coronavirus, we wanted to collect together some of the material that we, and others, have on the internet featuring Martin talking about his work.
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/martin-kariongi-in-his-own-words/
Mar 03 2021
Martin Saning’o Kariongi – a life in brief
While looking through my notes this week hunting some site data for a community in Tanzania that we are working in jointly with our partners OMASI, I found – on the very first pages of my notebook – the notes from our first project meeting, where Martin gave us a little glimpse of his life …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/martin-saningo-kariongi-a-life-in-brief/
Feb 09 2021
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 1 Report
It seems a long time since we were with our partners Chemolex in Nairobi in February of 2020, exploring different river sites for this project. The COVID lockdowns in both the UK and Kenya, and restrictions on international travel, have made progress much harder for us. It is with pride though, that we see the …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/removing-plastic-from-kenyas-rivers-year-1-report/
Jan 30 2021
Service Value Tests in Somaliland
As part of our project with Clear Sky Power and Energy Action Partners in Somaliland, we ran Service Value Tests (more here) in the three focus communities for the project. The aim was to help us get to know them a bit better, understand their needs and priorities, and so design the COMET toolkit to …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/service-value-tests-in-somaliland/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/the-innovate-uk-energy-catalyst-programme-and-working-with-partners/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/what-we-mean-by-community-engagement-the-svrg-way-of-working/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/the-svrg-approach-what-are-we-all-about/
Apr 01 2020
Demand-side Modelling in Somaliland with the Minigrid Game
SVRG is carrying this project out jointly with our partners non-profit Energy Action Partners in Malaysia, and innovative private sector minigrid developer Clear Sky Power in Somaliland. This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Worldwide, renewable energy minigrids hold great promise for providing electricity to over 1 billion people who are still …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/minigrid-demand-side-modelling-with-the-minigrid-game/
Apr 01 2020
Sustainable Minigrids in Lesotho (STI4D)
This project is being carried out by SVRG’s sister company, STI4D, in collaboration with local offgrid energy company MOSCET, the National University of Lesotho, and technical lead Gram Oorja, an experienced community minigrid and rural technology company based in India. This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. At a national electrification rate …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/sustainable-minigrids-in-lesotho-sti4d/
Apr 01 2020
Farmer’s Enterprise Centres and Mini-grids Rural Uganda
Project Overview SVRG is carrying this project out jointly with our partners in Uganda, social enterprise EcoLife Foods, and community NGO Kiima Foods. This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency under the Energy Catalyst Round 7 programme. The Issue Access to electricity is very low in Uganda, with rural areas having electrification …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/minigrids-and-integrated-anchor-loads-in-rural-uganda/
Mar 02 2020
Innovation Africa-style
One thing that the Smart Villages model is based on is the notion of “appropriate technology” – that is the use of technologies that are specified and optimised based on their context and utility, rather than their absolute efficiency or performance. The classic example is the use of, say, an off-the-shelf lead acid battery instead …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/innovation-africa-style/