Cambridge Uni Brings Affordable Solar Panels to Kenya

It's startling to learn that around 1.6 billion people, i.e. 20% of the world's population, still live off grid. Eight19, a social enterprise made up of former Cambridge Uni students, along with SunnyMoney and Kickstart Sustainable Energy Fund have started to address this issue.

The triumvirate have teamed up to create an ingenious system that provides affordable solar panels, which light users' homes and charge their mobile phones.

No doubt, it seems non-sensical to most that more of the developing world isn't harnessing the power of the sun, as a majority of the world's poorer nations receive a lot of sunlight, however, the set up costs of purchasing the equipment remain prohibitive. $40 - $250 is simply not affordable for families who exist on only a few dollars a day.

Eight19's brilliant approach to this dilemma is to make solar power an affordable service. IndiGo, the name of the product, combines mobile phone technology with solar power to offer its users the ability to both light their homes at night and charge their mobile phones, paid for once a week using a scratchcard system, much like topping up the credit on a mobile phone.

The unit itself is leased for an initial $10 fee, then the weekly cost is approximately $1, providing approximately 5 hours of light per day. The weekly outlay is approximately half of what the average family was paying for kerosene - this in turn is also an advantage environmentally, as fewer toxic fumes are emitted into the atmosphere.

There was an initial deployment of 4,000 IndiGo systems to rural Kenyan locations, funded by an investment of £200,000. This investment is recouped through the sale of the scratchcards, then re-invested to help deploy more units to different locations.

Families will spend proportionately less of their weekly income on energy, leaving the remainder to be saved or invested for the future. The advantages are just financial, however. One local Kenyan man involved in the trial used to have a 2 hour round trip, accompanied by a 2 hour wait, to charge his mobile phone. Now he can do it from the comfort of his own home.

The IndiGo system was first launched in Kenya in late 2011. The company plan to expand their affordable solar panel offerings in the future, with a 50w system being mooted that could power a small television.

"IndiGO makes electricity affordable because it allows users to buy electricity as a service, avoiding the expensive up-front costs normally associated with solar products", says Simon Bransfield Garth, CEO of Eight19. "Since we launched IndiGo in September 2011, the technology has been met with great enthusiasm and the Kickstart fund will further accelerate the deployment of solar power and all the benefits it brings."

Here, in the developed world, the most efficient and low cost option for harnessing the power is to make your own home made solar panels. For more information, please please click here.