Stories

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.

Mlinda’s pico-grids in India: Powering productive uses at the right price

Energy Entrepreneurs /
Girls School Hostel Sundarbans Electrified by Mlinda

Interview with Vijay Bhaskar Country Director, Mlinda Location: India “We pitched our tariff as an alternative to fossil fuels, and they’re willing to pay our tariff and make sure they’re consuming responsibly”. Mlinda’s first project to bring renewable energy to the Sunderbans, in West Bengal, didn’t go as well as hoped. The organisation wanted to …

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Thwarting thieves: Solar Turtle keeps solar panels safe & secure

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with James van der Walt, Founder, Solar Turtle Location: Stellenbosch, South Africa “Step one is having the courage”. James van der Walt was working as a mechanical engineer in Ireland in 2009, when the economic crisis hit. “It was atrocious, everyone was going on the dole,” he remembers. He was taking a ferry to …

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Disruptive technology for rural villages: The case of Sure Chill solar refrigerators

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Ian Tansley Chief Technical Officer, Sure Chill, a Cardiff-based tech company Location: UK “The single biggest challenge we have is people grasping the scale of what we can do: reaching billions” Tansley has spent over thirty years working in Africa, in Nigeria in particular. Remote solar-powered systems were failing; for example, conventional refrigerators …

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Village Infrastructure Angels: Village agriculture can be powered by solar energy

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Stewart Craine Founder, Village Infrastructure Angels Location: Vanuatu, Indonesia, Honduras, Papua New Guinea “You have to be obsessed with access to sustainable energy to do this job”. Stewart Craine calls his work “an adventure”—an indication of the robust attitude he’s applied throughout his career as an energy access entrepreneur. Craine co-founded Barefoot Power, a …

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Children in rural Ghana empowered by access to information, IT skills

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Josephine Marie Godwyll Founder and National Coordinator at Young at Heart Ghana Location: Ghana “The missing link most of the time is information”. Rural communities have a tremendous amount to gain from access to information. The internet offers potential solutions to many of the problems that make rural life difficult, but these are …

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Cambridge students bring tech to Indian students, inspire learning

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Moni Gupta Co-founder of Mobile Education for Smart Technology Location: India / Cambridge, UK “The same thing they are learning in their books they can explore with this technology and build up more creativity”. Today, Moni Gupta is a PhD student in chemistry at the University of Cambridge. But she remembers her time …

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Changing lives with energy access: Micro-hydro grids in rural Tanzania, Part 1

Video /

An Italian project (CEFA) and the local village company (MVC) have installed a mini-hydro grid in the southern highlands of Tanzania. The project has helped a large off-grid area of Matembwe village to access electricity and build up the local economy and services. It is sustainable thanks to management and maintenance.

It is not a village but people: Long Lamai, a case study of a smart village

Blog /

Long Lamai is a Penan village in upper Baram, northern Sarawak, of Malaysian Borneo. Travelling to the settlement from the nearest town Miri takes eight hours on rough logging roads and an hour of hiking through the dense rainforest. Alternately, it is reachable by flying from Miri to Long Banga by an hour’s flight via …

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For energy in Nepal, “remoteness is more than geographical”

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Ben Campbell Location: United Kingdom; Nepal “Remoteness is more than geographical”. Ben Campbell is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Durham University (UK), whose research and collaborations have focused on sustainable energy solutions for remote mountain villages in Nepal. But his interest in sustainability began well before he entered academia, when he …

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Hacking energy: low-tech “jugaad” energy innovation gives high-tech a run for its money

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Jaideep Prabhu Jawaharal Nehru Professor of Business and Enterprise at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University Location: United Kingdom; India “There is no shortage of ingenuity”. Jaideep Prabhu is the Jawaharal Nehru Professor of Business and Enterprise at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, and he directs the university’s Centre for …

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In Nigeria, biogas offers agricultural communities energy

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Fatima Oyiza Ademoh Project Manager, Ajima Farms and General Enterprises Nigeria Ltd Location: Nigeria “Biogas can power homes and communities”. “I have always wanted to reduce the numbers of people living in energy poverty”, says Fatima Ademoh. Her first off-grid project, connecting the village of Rije, Nigeria to a biogas generator, will be …

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Trust, training essential for off-grid energy start ups

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Salinee Hurley Tavaranan, CEO & Founder, SunSawang Formerly Director at Border Green Energy Team “We don’t do solar for free anymore. We started charging for it and now it’s working”. Salinee Tavaranan is trained as a solar engineer. But she’s learned the policy and finance side of the business as well, after more than 10 …

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Smart Villages Podcast 2 – The future of energy storage for smart villages – Interview with Dr Vasant Kumar

Podcast /

In Smart Villages Podcast 2, host Sir Brian Heap interviews Dr Vasant Kumar, Head of Materials Chemistry Group in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Dr Kumar explains that his group research interests relate to materials innovation for “Energy, Environment and Sustainability”, working to help develop technologies for new …

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For Tanzania’s Chololo Ecovillage, a focus on education makes investment go further

Energy Entrepreneurs /
Mary Mpilimi says: “Now I don’t have to beg money for my husband for things like clothing, medicine and school fees."

Interview with Michael Farrelly Chololo Ecovillage Location: Tanzania “If 70 percent of your population is dependent on rain-fed agriculture, then climate change is a big issue”. With a masters degree in rural development, Michael Farrelly has brought a knowledge of participatory research methods to the Chololo Ecovillage. By offering villagers a wide range of climate-resilient techniques to …

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Smart Villages Podcast 1 – Cambridge graduates pursue smart villages projects – Interview with Dr Nalin Patel

Podcast /

In Smart Villages Podcast 1, host Sir Brian Heap interviews Dr Nalin Patel, Programme Manager of the Winton Porgramme for the Physics of Sustainabililty at the world famous Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Dr Patel tells about the experimental research they are currently conducting on batteries and superconductors. He also explains the links …

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Stirling engines – energy for off-grid villages?

Video /

Having already designed Stirling engines for aerospace, Dr Mike Dadd of the University of Oxford discusses the pros and cons of a biomass-powered Stirling engines for producing electricity in off-grid villages.

Why rural communities matter

Video /

Dr Shailaja Fennell of the Centre for Development Studies (University of Cambridge) discusses why understanding rural communities needs and aspirations are crucial for improving rural development.

Interview with Dr Scott Watkins

Video /

Center: Dr Scott Watkins Based in both Seoul, Korea and in Melbourne, Australia, watkins directs new business development with KISCO, a Korean chemicals and inks manufacturer. His role is to help develop new strategies and business areas. He continues to pursue further opportunities contributing to social enterprises and technology startups. Left: Julia Vitullo-Martin Julia Vitullo-Martin …

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What makes village “smart”?

Video /

1.3 people in the world still lack access to electricity, and at least 3 billion people are still cooking on dangerous and inefficient cookstoves that create dangerous conditions inside homes. We’re trying to understand how the lives of people in rural villages in developing countries can be improved… In this video, Smart Villages asked experts …

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