Projects

Low Voltage SWER for Affordable Microgrid Distribution Infrastructure (LS, TZ, UG)

Lesotho Minigrids, Live Projects, Simanjiro, Smart Agri-Centres /

Smart Villages was awarded this InnovateUK Energy Catalyst round 10 project in a consortium with our Lesotho partners the National University of Lesotho’s Energy Research Centre and local energy renewable company MOSCET, our Tanzanian partners OMASI, and our Ugandan partners Kiima Foods. Minigrids are a popular solution for community-wide offgrid electricity access, because they allow […]

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Sustainable Access to Energy and Water in Rural Tanzania

Live Projects, Simanjiro /

Smart Villages has been awarded this InnovateUK Energy Catalyst round 10 project jointly with our Tanzanian partners OMASI, to take forward research and testing of our technology solutions and business models for solar boreholes for community access to water and energy. In northern Tanzania water access is the single highest community priority. Solarising boreholes is

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Renewable Energy and Water Supply Hubs for Schools and Hospitals (SS)

Education Technology, Health Impact, Live Projects /

Smart Villages was awarded this InnovateUK Energy Catalyst round 10 project in a consortium with our Ugandan and South Sudanese partner, ApTech Africa ltd. Project Overview This is a combined Electrical Storage System (ESS) and Solar Water Pumping project. It will supply 24/7 power and water to a hospital and 2 school in South Sudan.

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Solar Agro-Processing and Aquaponics Hubs for Economic Development (RW)

Case studies, Live Projects /

Smart Villages was awarded this project, collaborating with our Rwandan partners Njordfrey, in InnovateUK’s Energy Catalyst round 10. This project is a transformative initiative aimed at empowering rural communities by providing sustainable access to renewable energy and enhancing their food production capacities. Through the integration of innovative technologies and community-driven approaches, we seek to create

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Borehole Solarisation and Payment Enforcement in Rural Tanzania

Completed Projects, Simanjiro /

Smart Villages was awarded this InnovateUK Energy Catalyst round 9 project in a consortium with our Tanzanian partner, 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

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

Completed Projects, 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

Live Projects, 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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