The project aimed to develop a product which could: 1. Report on an entire solar system (AC currents, AC voltages, DC currents, and DC voltages), independent of the equipment manufacturer. 2. Divert excess energy directly from the solar panels to an auxiliary load, using historic data and AI algorithms to determine when there is sufficient …
Off-grid energy reporting technology (Completed) Read More »
This report was written to summarise all findings from an InnovateUK Funded research project, aiming to develop a product which could: 1. Report on an entire solar system (AC currents, AC voltages, DC currents, and DC voltages), independent of the equipment manufacturer. 2. Divert excess energy directly from the solar panels to an auxiliary load, …
Off-grid multi-energy reporting system and AI load controller – Full Technical Report Read More »
As part of InnovateUK funded project: ‘Innovative Off-Grid Access to Healthcare’. research was carried out into the healthcare system in Tanzania, and more specifically for rural communities around Terat, Tanzania, where our partner organisation is based (See the Community Remote Healthcare Priorities Report). The findings confirmed that there is a need for improved access to …
This report summarises the key findings from the first two remote telehealth consultation trials, held in Loswaki village in Jan/Feb 2021, including detail on the health trial set-up, the sequence of activities for each, the number of patients that attended, and how the requirement for medicines to be transported to the patients was fulfilled. Patients …
A short video showing some highlights from our most recent work visit to Africa to give you a flavour of our everyday lives out on the field: fixing milling machines, inspecting and diagnosing solar equipment, running telehealth trials, joining our project partners in cooking food, running focus groups, visiting schools, helping build cold-stores, travelling to …
As part of the Education Technology Project we ran in 2021, we worked closely with a local secondary school for running focus groups and user tests. It is eye-opening seeing the conditions the students live in, when you compare it with what we have in England. Most students live too far away to walk in …
The SVRG approach is grounded in community engagement and human centred design, to ensure the systems we install bring real, lasting benefit. Unfortunately, due to language barriers, we are unable to run focus groups ourselves, but rely on our in-country partners to assist with translation, or with running the entire group following training. Our translators …
Language and Education Barriers in Community Engagement Read More »
SVRG are carrying out this 3 month project with funding from InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Most of our community development solutions have been powered by clean offgrid solar electricity. Monitoring and controlling these systems can be challenging, as every equipment manufacturer tends to have their own bespoke monitoring and data collection system. This presents …
Off-grid multi-energy reporting system and AI load controller Read More »
This report outlines the health needs and priorities of remote Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania, specifically in the Simanjiro region where our project partners, OMASI are based. The research was done as part of an Innovate Funded Project, exploring how video consultations and batched medicine delivery could help provide quality access to healthcare for remote, …
Community Remote Healthcare Background and Priorities Report – Simanjiro, Tanzania Read More »
A video showing some highlights from our most recent trip to Uganda, aiming to give you a flavour of our everyday work out on the field.
This report describes the results of tests conducted to assess the viability of an electric 3-phase 2.2kW Agsol hammer mill, imported from Kenya, for use in rural Maasai communities in Simanjiro, Tanzania. The objectives of the tests were to assess the viability of powering the mill from offgrid (solar) energy technology, and (for different mill …
Many of the communities we work with are agricultural, with maize flour contributing to an integral part of their diet. In the rural Maasai Tanzanian communities we work with, villagers often have to travel miles to neighbouring towns to access a diesel milling machine. Once there, they can face long waiting periods for sufficient customers …
Something we realised during our most recent trip to Uganda, is the importance of timing visits according to the seasons and political rallies. This personal recount is adapted from notes written during the trip: 19/11/2021 Just as we arrived in Kampala, we found out there’d been protests following the arrest of Bobi Wine, a presidential …
A Personal Recount of Challenging Travel through Heavy Rains and Political Campaigns Read More »
A short video showing highlights from our work visit to Tanzania in Sept/Oct 2020, giving a flavour of life on the field.
On our most recent trip to Tanzania, the number of half-fallen trees was quite noticeable. I thought nothing of it at first, even though several of them were lying across the roads. They could have been damaged in storms? That was until we realised that they were all under newly erected grid electricity lines. The …
Although our first solar installation in rural Tanzania has been having overwhelmingly positive reviews by the local community (powering the local water borehole, the first fridge in the local shop, and a small, efficient, electric milling-machine) we still have a hard time explaining the concept of solar power to some of our other target communities. …
Trying to get a good education in the rural communities with which we work in Tanzania is a real challenge. With classes of 80 students, insufficient chairs, classrooms and equipment, no electricity or running water, lack of funds to buy textbooks, and some parents encouraging their children to fail the pre-secondary exams so they don’t …
STI4D, a sister company to SVRG, is carrying this project out jointly with our NGO partners in Tanzania, Orkonerei Maasai Social Initiatives (OMASI). This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. Access to good healthcare is often challenging in the developing world, but this is greatly compounded for people living in remote off-grid …
Innovative Access to Healthcare for Impact in Remote Communities Read More »
The community radio station: Orkonerei Radio Service (ORS FM), is the first Maasai pastoralists’ radio and was established to better communicate with the Maasai in Terrat, Simanjiro district. For many Maasai who don’t understand Kiswahili or Maasai, it’s their only source of information and important for education on health and agriculture. At their peak, ORS …
A Wood-Mounted solar array for the Tanzania’s Maasai Radio Station Read More »
Three days before our recent flight to Tanzania, we’d received word that the inverter installed at our 50kW solar array in Ormoti had stopped working. The local electrician was sent in to take a look, and found a lizard had somehow managed to crawl inside and fried its brains. He removed the lizard, thinking it …