Case studies

SVRG and our partners are currently working on the following projects. Scroll down for older, completed projects.

Aligning with Mission 300: Accelerating Sustainable Energy with Smart Agri-Centres

Smart Agri-Centres /

The world is facing a rapidly evolving challenge: how to meet the needs of a growing population while addressing the climate crisis. Sustainable energy is at the heart of solutions to both these challenges. One such visionary initiative is Mission 300, an ambitious target set by Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All). This mission aims to …

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Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 4 Report

River plastic update, River Plastic Waste /

2023 was another busy year for the project and our partners Chemolex in Nairobi. And a year in which we benefitted from continuation funding, extending the original 3-year project by a further year, from UC Santa Barbara and the Benioff and Coca-Cola Foundations. Main activities throughout the year were continuing to operate the riverside trash …

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Borehole Solarisation and Payment Enforcement in Rural Tanzania

Simanjiro /

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 …

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Pay-N-Pump 2.0 – adding storage to mobile solar irrigation systems

PayNPump /

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, …

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Mobile Minigrids for Rapid Rural Energy Access

Completed Projects, Mobile Minigrids /

The Challenge Rural communities in the developing world often require access to high-power equipment, such as for flour milling or welding, but to run these services can require power at the minigrid-scale of more than 10kW. When this equipment is not running, the baseline demand for power is extremely low (a typical solar home system …

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Sustainable Offgrid Ed-Tech for the Developing World (Completed)

Completed Projects, Education Technology /

Aim: Utilise technology to support maths teaching and learning in rural secondary schools in Tanzania. Outcome: Maths learning app successfully developed and tested with student cohort, demonstrating between 10-21% increase in maths ability after only 6 weeks. Future: Develop more content to support more of the maths curriculum, trial in other countries, and do a …

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Innovative Off-grid Access To Healthcare (STI4D, Completed)

Completed Projects, Health Impact /

Project Aim: Develop and test a new method for improving access to healthcare for unserved Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania Outcome: Conducted over 11 different types of research activity in 4 rural Maasai communities, with a total of over 200 participants including health professionals, to determine health needs and priorities. Successfully applied existing video-conferencing technology …

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Off-grid energy reporting technology (Completed)

Completed Projects, Monitoring and Data /

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 …

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Off-grid multi-energy reporting system and AI load controller

Completed Projects, Monitoring and Data /

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 …

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Demand-side Modelling in Somaliland with the Minigrid Game

COMET, Completed Projects /

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 …

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Sustainable Minigrids in Lesotho (STI4D)

Completed Projects, Lesotho Minigrids /

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 …

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Farmer’s Enterprise Centres and Mini-grids Rural Uganda

Completed Projects, Smart Agri-Centres /

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 …

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Removing Waste Plastic from the Nairobi-Athi River System in Kenya

River Plastic Waste /

SVRG is carrying this project out jointly with our partners Chemolex in Kenya. This project is jointly funded by the Coca Cola Foundation and UCSB’s Benioff Ocean Initiative, as part of the Clean Currents Coalition. The Athi is the second longest river in Kenya, flowing 390 km before entering the Indian Ocean. Flowing through Nairobi, …

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Low-cost Efficient Rural Cold Storage in Uganda

Cold Storage, Completed Projects /

SVRG carried out this project jointly with our partner in Uganda, social enterprise EcoLife Foods, based in Matugga, north of Kampala. This project was funded by the Efficiency for Access Coalition. Together with our partners in Uganda, Ecolife Foods, we have worked to develop and test improvements to a low-cost, local-technology-driven cold storage solution. The …

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Integrated Community Energy in Northern Tanzania

Completed Projects, Simanjiro /

Project Overview 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. Minigrids are widely advocated as the most appropriate solution for solving universal energy access in the developing world. However, few minigrids achieve sustainable long-term operations …

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