Stories are what make the world and inspire the imagination. We have collected, and continue to add, stories about energy access and rural development around the world, as well as the latest updates and thoughts from our own projects and activities.
Click on the image above to download a two page flyer outlining SVRG’s Smart Agri-Centre solution for rural offgrid communities, and detailing the community-wide impacts that a SAC can generate sustainably into the future.
This report sets out the community-wide impact measured from the Mbata Smart Agri-Centre over its first two years of operation. This was compiled as part of our evidence as part of the Milken-Motsepe Green Energy prize competition. Click on the image above to open a copy of the pdf report.
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 …
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 4 Report Read More »
Can sustainable energy transform the livelihoods of agricultural communities? This video explores the impact of Smart Agri-Centres, an innovative energy access solution created by Smart Villages and Kiima Foods, a UK-Uganda partnership.
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 …
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 3 Report Read More »
This report details the results of detailed and comprehensive surveys and qualitative analysis of the socio-economic impact of the Smart Agri-Centre over the first year of usage in the community of Mbata in Uganda. The report was produced as part of Smart Villages’ participation in the Milken-Motsepe AgriTech prize competition.
This report details the results of detailed and comprehensive surveys and analysis of the impact of the Smart Agri-Centre over the first year of usage in the community of Mbata in Uganda. The report was produced as part of Smart Villages’ participation in the Milken-Motsepe AgriTech prize competition.
Click on the image above to read the qualitative and quantitative impact report for our Energy Catalyst rd 6 project on Community Energy Solutions in rural Tanzania. This report examines the responses from the communities across a broad range of impact metrics. Impacts were reported by survey participants in areas much more widely than just …
Tanzania Community Energy Systems: Impact Report Read More »
Click on the image above to read the qualitative and quantitative impact report for our Energy Catalyst rd 7 project on Smart AgriCentres (Farmers’ Enterprise Centres) in rural Uganda. This report examines the responses from the communities across a broad range of impact metrics, finding particularly that impacts were felt much more widely than just …
As part of the mobile minigrid project in Kenya, we have been working with Chemolex and Quantum Conversions in Nairobi, on designing a trailer with 10kW of quickly deployable solar power. So what does that look like? Well 10kW of solar power is BIG! Each 430W panel is over 2mx1m (almost the size of the …
SVRG and partners developed our locally-appropriate, low cost low-tech cold storage solution under an Efficiency for Access R&D Fund grant between 2019 and 2021. This is the Innovator Series report produced by the Energy Saving Trust about SVRG’s innovation and the results of our research.
Smart Villages Research Group and project partners Chemolex surveyed more than 11 remote communities in Central and Western Kenya to find a suitable location for trialling of a mobile minigrid system. The report linked below outlines their key research findings. The Maasai Mara communities around Narok proved most promising, as these were the only ones …
At Smart Villages Research Group, we truly believe in the importance of a community-led approach. We always start by asking the community to tell us about the challenges they’re facing, through focus groups and service value tests. This helps us ensure that any technology or system we develop will definitely provide value to the community, …
Challenging Assumptions through Community Engagement Read More »
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 …
Removing Plastic from Kenya’s Rivers – Year 2 Report Read More »
We often hear on the radio and news about how climate change is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South. Although the effects are slowly reaching us in Europe, they are rarely life-threatening, only mildly inconvenient or unusual. For our partners in Tanzania and Uganda, it is harrowing to hear first-hand how their friends and …
When running focus groups in Uganda, our partners noticed significant discrepancies in the answers that the community members were giving during the focus groups in comparison to the responses they’d given when baseline surveys had been conducted by the Ugandan team over the past few weeks. They challenged the community to explain why they were …
Every organisation has faced their difficulties continuing through COVID, with hospitality sector hit hardest. While some businesses have thrived (those offering digital services, or able to move all their work online) others have been unable to make the transition smoothly. Here at SVRG we are lucky to be able to work remotely while not travelling, …
I’m proud to report that we have set up the first Weather Net WiFi connected weather station in the whole of Uganda, allowing us to monitor the solar irradiation at our Matugga solar site and compare it to the output power of the panels. This will help us with spotting problems and evaluating the effectiveness …
Today we finished installing the main electronics for one of our Farmers Enterprise Centres in Uganda. It was a mammoth 3 days of wiring, programming batteries/inverters and fixing electronics to walls, but we did it! And it wouldn’t have been possible without our fantastic local partners, Eco-Life and Kiima Foods. Throughout the 3 days, we …
Even though it looks like the main national grid might soon reach some of the villages we’ve been working with, both in Tanzania and Uganda, it is surprising how many of them are still keen for us to continue installing solar power despite the fact that this will be significantly more expensive for them. Having …