solar

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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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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Unreliable Grid Power

Simanjiro update, Uganda update /

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

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Rural Perceptions of Solar Power

Simanjiro update /

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.

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A Wood-Mounted solar array for the Tanzania’s Maasai Radio Station

Simanjiro update /

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

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WR28: Sustainable energy for rural development & climate resilience of off-grid communities in Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico

Workshop Reports /

Although the energy situation in Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico is not uniform across all the countries in the region, many of them face some common issues and challenges. With some exceptions, nearly all countries in Central America and the Caribbean are net oil and fossil fuel importers, putting them in an uncertain position

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Aleutia: From solar classrooms in a box to Africa’s emerging middle class

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Mike Rosenberg Founder, Aleutia Location: pan-Africa “I’m passionate about what I do. Passion is not optional”. Mike Rosenberg started his technology career in 2004 at Kelway, a leading UK IT reseller and was fascinated by the falling price of technology and opportunities for social impact in Africa. Given an opportunity to go to

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[:en]New report claims off-grid smart villages can deliver sustainable path to rural development[:]

Press Releases /

[:en]Key Points: Off-grid technology can catalyse sustainable development for even the 1.1 billion without electricity in the remotest “last mile” communities Bottom-up approach key to achieving SDG7 Energy Access for All Goal Hub and spoke models combining hybrid mini-grids and solar home systems can provide starting point Governments need to create integrated off-grid and grid

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[:en]Smart Villages | New thinking for off-grid communities worldwide[:es]Una nueva manera de pensar para comunidades sin conexión a la red a nivel mundial Smart[:fr]De nouvelles initiatives pour les populations hors réseau du monde entier[:]

Resources /

[:en]Smart Villages presents 16 essays by leading scientists and thinkers, providing policy makers, donors and development agencies concerned with rural energy access with new insights on the barriers to energy access in villages in developing countries – technological, financial and political – and explores opportunities and efforts to overcome them. The book describes the personal

[:en]Smart Villages | New thinking for off-grid communities worldwide[:es]Una nueva manera de pensar para comunidades sin conexión a la red a nivel mundial Smart[:fr]De nouvelles initiatives pour les populations hors réseau du monde entier[:] Read More »

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