Electrical Solutions Are the Way of the Future

Imagine working abroad in a rural village in Africa or India and consider your web access there. Web access, in a place without roads?

Aside from the web, consider the electricity you are using all around you right now (lights, AC/heat, computer, etc.). We live in a highly “charged” society – everything around us is powered. When we are caught in a storm and our power goes out, the question in the air is always, “What is there to do?”

Now more remote villagers are starting to see energy solutions surface in their communities, connecting them to additional sources of power and slowly changing their way of life. Ironically, the majority still have to travel more than a day to get to the nearest doctor.

It is remarkable to see that many services can be provided to the most remote and removed communities. Much of this can be attributed to advances made in power and energy.

A quick reminder on the differences between the two:

• Power is the instantaneous creation and use of electricity - what is needed right now to power an electronic device, and is expressed in watts or kilowatts.
• Energy is the storage of power for use over time, and is expressed in watt-hours or kilowatt hours.

Over a month ago, the DC Technology Salon held a session on power solutions for the developing world. Electrical power is key for ICT deployment as well as many other basic services. Sadly, it is often the main barrier to deployment because it doesn't exist in rural and under-served areas, which are known as "off-grid" locations. The electrical systems that do exist tend to be expensive, intermittent, and unreliable - holding back a lot of the effort abroad.

World Vision International and Solar Nexus International are two initiatives that currently focus on creating reliable rural electrical systems. WVI has identified the strategic opportunity to leverage its community model to develop small-scale alternative energy solutions together with strategic partners. SNI builds the market infrastructure for the off-grid industry in the developing world, naturally partnering with many ICT4D efforts.

Both of the industries need capacity building in distribution, design, installation, and service for installers and a financing and education plan for users. Eric Youngren of SNI led a discussion group of DC professionals, including Forum One staff, in the global development scene on how to plan and budget for electrical solutions in the developing world.

Youngren started the session by asking,“How do we transport all of our technology here, to Mali?” Everyone nervously chuckled and smiled back at Youngren.

Thinking of a solution is the easy part in development – the challenge is the deployment, implementation, and the sustainability. Forum One can relate to that with designing and building websites that meet client and audience needs - worldwide.  Our daily objective is to help our clients communicate with people world wide and ensure that our technology solution fits their needs and is sustainable.

If an organization is looking to open a clinic in a rural village, it goes beyond finding a space and creating a staff. A strategy of extreme efficiency and diligence needs to be created. If the clinic needs to be open for six hours a day, energy needs to be considered for lights, centrifuge, computers, refrigerator, fans, autoclave, a printer, etc. It is critical to have a staff member that serves the people and can take care of the infrastructure. If anything goes wrong with the power, the clinic would fail to open and would be unable to serve the people.

Sizing a solar panel to meet energy storage and power consumption needs can be daunting. However, an estimate can be achieved by using Matt Berg's Off-Grid Solar Calculator as a reference.

This sizing exercise helped everyone in the room understand the variables of electricity and how much usage can cost - in power creation (solar panels), energy storage (batteries), and power consumption (electronic devices). It helped Forum One understand the challenges its clients have in the field with its people and their own access to the web. Downloading large sites can use a lot of energy; proposing alternative options when opening a site (simpler style sheets) could make a big difference.

There are numerous efforts around making both the solar panel sizing and deployment easier. For example, WVI is pitching "smart grids" where individual homeowners and businesses could feed into and take from a combined electrical system. However, there is a great need for more solar power skills and knowledge at the local level in the developing world so that we can expand the use of renewable energy sources and make these systems sustainable.

It is important now that awareness is built around sustainable energy solutions. As Youngren said, nonprofits need to “step outside of the box” and work together to focus on building a system that will last. The challenge is that this is a whole new market and a new infrastructure that development staff is grappling to understand. Eventually though, the payoff will be significant, as more rural villages have sustainable solutions in place.

Internet surfing in Mali – here I come!