PowerPath is a social innovation project for rural Africa, aiming to develop next generation solar technologies, smart energy management systems and business processes that will optimise local value creation through an award winning, patented, lateral electrification model featuring a:
- Horizontal industry approach powered by local entrepreneurship
- Market concept based on a hybrid commercial offering of payment for a device or payment for a service
Starting with the severely under-served country of Madagascar, the PowerPath project aims to develop and demonstrate innovative, rural electrification solutions for Sub-Saharan Africa that are:
Affordable – radical affordability is at the core of the lateral electrification model, with ambitions to reduce the cost of electrification fivefold compared to conventional AC micro- or minigrids, and by at least 10% compared to national grid extensions, in predominantly rural countries like Madagascar. The rapid market penetration of project partner Nanoé's solar nanogrids in the Malagasy rural electrification market, in which over 80% of households live below the poverty line (compared to the 41% African average) provides reliable proof of the affordability of the proposed solution.
Reliable – despite their innovative nature, PowerPath’s solutions are targeted at reliability. Furthermore, it is the project partners' belief that, in the context of rural Africa, where capital is expensive and labour cheap, this reliability should not be based on over-investment in state-of-the art, costly and maintenance-free technologies but, instead, on significant investment in local maintenance capacity building and knowledge transfer.
Sustainable – the project’s electrification solutions are low carbon and 100% solar, therefore, PowerPath also addresses the provision of renewable energy to replace the use of fossil fuels.
(Image, top of page, shows an installed controller-payment interface)