solar

Borehole Solarisation and Payment Enforcement in Rural Tanzania

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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[:]

[: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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BR8: Findings from the Dhaka Smart Villages Workshop

The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Dhaka on 26 August 2015 to consider the experience in Bangladesh of off-grid rural energy systems. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.

[: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[:]

[: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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