Latest news with #AfricaGreenTec
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
How a 1,200-person village in Senegal traded diesel generators for solar power
On the southern border of Senegal lies a small village called Keur Niangane. The roughly 1,200 residents of this village reside in a desert zone, hours away from the capital of Dakar. This village is north of the intestine-shaped carve-out country of the Republic of the Gambia and the mouth of its twisty river that leads out to the sea. Here, electricity has historically been a challenge–until recently, that is. Through a partnership between ChargePoint and Africa GreenTec, a 'Solartainer' is now in place to power up the community. Basically, this sustainable microgrid is a shipping container plated with 144 solar panels, containing enough battery storage to create a predictable, stable source of energy Imagine life with unstable power. In America, we're so used to a consistent power grid in most places that when we have any kind of outage, we panic. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electricity usage varies significantly per household by day, time of day, and year. For example, power use is high in the summer when air conditioning use is in full swing. On average, the DoE says a typical American household uses 920 kWh of electricity per month, and appliances alone account for 64.7 percent of electricity consumption. Hair dryers, coffee makers, refrigerators, televisions, wifi routers…these everyday gadgets all require energy to run. Before the ChargePoint project, Keur Niangane had no access to centralized electricity or public lighting, says Dr. Wolfgang Rams, CEO of Africa GreenTec. Households relied on candles, kerosene lamps, or basic solar home systems, which were insufficient for productive activities. Small businesses often used diesel generators, which can be costly, noisy, polluting, and prone to fuel shortages and breakdowns. The International Energy Agency issued a report in 2020 showing that nearly 70 percent of Senegal was connected to the national grid. Truthfully, Rams says, while the community is enthusiastic about gaining access to reliable, clean energy and the opportunities it brings for development, safety, and comfort, some residents expressed a preference for connection to the national grid. However, extending the central grid to remote areas like Keur Niangane 'would be prohibitively expensive due to the need for long-distance medium-voltage transmission infrastructure.' 'This decentralized approach offers a cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable alternative,' Rams told Popular Science. With the Solartainer in place, the village has access to clean, solar-powered electricity. This enables small enterprises to power machinery, expand operations, and increase income, Rams says, which creates jobs and stimulates local economic growth. Plus, technicians are trained and employed to maintain and service the sites; as it is, the setup doesn't require much maintenance. 'Productive energy use is central to our approach, as it fosters community entrepreneurship, generates new opportunities, and creates ripple effects that uplift the entire village,' Rams says. Through Africa GreenTech, project sites are based on several criteria, including population density, distance to the national power grid and paved roads, and the spatial distribution of homes. Keur Niangane in Senegal is one of 54 villages chosen under the government-led program for rural electrification through renewable energy. A project like this isn't cheap, and ChargePoint used money from selling its carbon credits on the open market through the EU Emissions Trading System. This program, which requires polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, was launched in 2005 and operates in all EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. By selling carbon credits earned through 10,000 EV chargers in Germany, ChargePoint raised enough funds for Senegal's Solartainer. 'If a company can prove it's trying to contain emissions, it can trade these certificates,' explains Andreas Blin, Senior Manager Solution Partners for ChargePoint. For every kilowatt used to recharge a car through ChargePoint's network in the EU, the company is earning credits. If you think about it, Blin says, it's a 'really cool thing' to finance the replacement of Keur Niangane's diesel generators with money earned from EVs, which use electric motors instead of gas-powered engines. ChargePoint's long-term goal is to keep earning credits and continue funding this project for the foreseeable future. All in, now Keur Niangane has a solar capacity of 56 kWp (kilowatt-peak, or the maximum power a solar panel system can produce under ideal conditions) and it's connected to a five-kilometer mini-grid, providing clean electricity to 1,207 people in 149 households. The team also installed 55 solar-powered streetlights, significantly improving public safety, extending productive hours into the evening, and enhancing quality of life.
Fast Company
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Fast Company
Why this EV charging company just helped electrify an entire village in Senegal
In a small village in Senegal, almost no one has electricity, but that's about to change. Last year, a 40-foot-shipping container rolled into town, unfolded an array of solar panels on its roof, and crews began running wires to connect the whole village to clean power. After final approvals from the local government, the new microgrid will soon switch on. The project had an unusual funding source: ChargePoint, the EV charging company known for its network of a million chargers in the U.S. and Europe, spent six figures helping get it built, working with a technology partner called Africa GreenTec. The EV charging company used money that it earned selling carbon credits from 10,000 EV chargers in Germany. Under the EU's emissions trading program, it gets certificates for replacing gas or diesel fuel in cars with electricity. But since the electricity used to charge cars isn't yet 100% clean, the company wanted to use the carbon credit funds to go a step farther. (Germany's grid reached a record of 62.7% renewable energy in 2024, but still uses some coal and natural gas.) 'From the very beginning, we said we are going to set aside a certain amount of money for each kilowatt hour,' says Andreas Blin, director of segments and partnerships at ChargePoint. 'And this is going to be invested into a renewable energy product or project, just to make sure that everybody's clear that we are not about greenwashing—we're about burning less fossil fuels.' As the team considered where to spend the funds, it decided to partner with Africa GreenTec, a company that makes a mobile system called the Solartainer Amali, designed to quickly deploy solar power and electrify entire communities. The first project was built in Keur Ndiangane, a village with around 1,200 residents on the southern border of Senegal. Most people living there are subsistence farmers, dealing with a harsh climate that swings between floods and droughts. 'Before our project, Keur Ndiangane had no access to centralized electricity or public lighting,' says Wolfgang Rams, CEO of Africa GreenTec. 'Daily life effectively ended at sunset—shops closed, schools emptied, and the streets were plunged into darkness. Most households relied on candles or kerosene lamps.' Some small businesses, such as mills that process grains, ran on expensive diesel generators. To install the new microgrid, a crew spent a few weeks getting the 'Solartainer'— which has 144 solar panels and battery storage—ready to run. (The process is normally even faster, but installation was slower because of extreme heat). At the same time, they spent two months putting up more than 100 poles and nearly 16,000 feet of wiring for the new grid. They also added 55 street lights that each run independently off their own solar panels, helping improve safety for people walking at night. Families can sign up for different plans depending on what time of day they want to use electricity and how much they need. More than 140 people are pre-subscribed so far. (ChargePoint doesn't own any part of the project and won't get any financial return from it.) The impact will be significant. In the past, while families might have used candles or kerosene for light at night, they'll now easily be able to use bright LED lights and charge other small appliances. 'Children can study in the evening,' Blin says. 'People can work in the evening . . . This extends the daytime that people can use.' It can help enable internet access and refrigeration. Farmers can use the power to pump water on their fields, or run equipment to make new products, such as peanut oil. Healthcare clinics can use lighting and refrigerate medicine. New jobs have been created, as local residents will maintain the new solar microgrid. In other areas where Africa GreenTec has installed solar microgrids in the past, it has seen that electrification trigger economic growth—and then there's more demand for power. Because of that, the system has been designed to adapt. The village can swap in a larger, more powerful solar microgrid when it's needed, and the original Solartainer can be packed up and reused. 'The previously used Solartainer Amali can be transported to the next village that is not yet electrified and can be used there again at any time,' says Rams. 'This unique feature saves production effort and resources and reduces our carbon footprint.' The work is part of a much larger trend: Solar microgrids are quickly spreading across Africa. In Zambia, as one example, the government has installed 45 microgrids in rural communities, with plans for another 200 by next year, and 1,000 over the next few years, with support from nonprofits, the UN, and other funders. In Nigeria, World Bank funding has helped millions of people access electricity from solar microgrids in recent years. Last year, World Bank lending for off-grid solar projects reached $660 million. The World Bank Group has also partnered with the African Development Bank with a goal of connecting 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030. Those larger efforts dwarf what a single company can do. Still, Africa GreenTec says that ChargePoint's support meant that the village of Keur Ndiangane likely got power faster than it otherwise would have. 'Without ChargePoint's financing, implementing the project would have been extremely difficult,' Rams says. ChargePoint, founded in California in 2007, has been navigating a difficult period, with net losses of $282.9 million in the fiscal year ending in January, and around 250 jobs cut in 2024. It's also earning less money now from carbon credits, because the value of carbon credits has fallen. Still, its network of EV chargers continues to grow, and the company expects to invest in electrifying another village. 'I'd like to see more companies support things like this,' Blin says.
The Independent
27-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Mali embraces solar power for rural areas but the challenges are still vast
A solar power plant in this rural corner of Mali has jolted a village to life and awakened dreams of steady power in other areas of this West African nation as it sees unprecedented growth in renewable energy. The border village of Karan and its 3,000 people used to go days without electricity. Now, enough power is available around the clock to run small video gaming centers and boost commercial activities. The electricity comes from a mini-grid of dozens of panels and storage batteries operated by WeLight, a Madagascan rural electrification startup, since 2021. 'Before the solar power came to the village, I ran my bakery with a generator,' said Samba Diakité. Running the diesel-powered generator used to cost $100 a day. He said he now saves more than half of that amount and has a daily income of $124. But experts say the rest of Mali — and much of West Africa — has a long way to go before seeing similar progress. Many rural areas remain without electricity, affecting everything from students' evening homework to business investment. Only 53% of Mali's population had access to electricity as of 2021, according to the latest data from the World Bank. In rural areas, access is as low as 25%, according to Abdoulaye Makan Sissoko, an official with Mali's rural electrification agency. Studies have shown that achieving universal access to electricity in Mali would require an investment of around $1.3 billion to extend networks and create more mini-grids, Sissoko said. Solar power is a recent development in the country. The government is encouraging the use of it by exempting equipment from customs duties and promising to subsidize the price of solar kits. Without such subsidies, solar energy in Mali is about twice the price of the traditional fossil fuel energy used in cities. For now, people pay a subscription ranging from $30 to $164 for a meter and pay about $0.50 per kilowatt. The rural electrification agency says 32 mini-solar plants like the one in Karan are in four regions in Mali's south and southwest of the country, providing power for more than 2 million people, and are run by WeLight and German-owned Africa GreenTec. 'We started with 48 connections and now we have more than 200. We had to expand our generation capacity and distribution network to meet demand,' said Brice Bado, WeLight's sales manager, speaking about Karan. Mali's government has recognized the need for electricity. This year, it approved raising money from telephone, mobile money and alcohol sales and usage fees to boost electricity production. In March, telephone companies announced a 10% levy on telephone and internet credit top-ups and a 1% levy on mobile money cash withdrawals. But the country's political crisis has also affected the push to expand electricity access. After two coups, the relationship between the military-run government and some foreign partners deteriorated, leading to the withdrawal of key ones. Among them was France, which along with the European Union had a $39.5 million rural electrification project called PHARE in a startup phase. It is now cancelled. There were also rural electrification projects financed by the Islamic Development Bank to electrify 24 villages awarded to French company Sagecom, but the military government ordered the bank to revoke the contracts and reopen the bidding process, according to Sissoko with the rural electrification agency. Now the project is being cancelled, he said. Meanwhile, the World Bank last year suspended $60 million in financing to support Mali's state-owned energy company over a dispute with the military government about financing arrangements. Political instability is one reason why countries in the Sahel — the arid strip south of the Sahara desert — have not been able to achieve electrification goals, along with insecurity and poor governance, said Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst with the London-based Control Risks. Insecurity caused by extremist attacks is another challenge to expansion in Mali, especially in the north, limiting the areas where companies can safely set up solar mini-grids. 'Energy needs continue to grow at a rate of between 4 to 10%, depending on the countries, and this combination of factors makes the Sahel and Mali a difficult environment to support the development of sustainable projects," Ochieng said. Nonetheless, the solar plant has brought some relief to Karan, one of the villages selected based on data provided by Mali's rural electrification agency. Issa Doumbia, wearing goggles as he welded a metal door, recalled how he used to spend $16 to $23 a day on diesel for a generator but now spends $8 thanks to solar power. 'There's not much of a market to make big profits. So, I would like to see the price of electricity go down,' he said. As night fell, trader Mah Konaré spread lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers on a table along the main road. Her business has been extended with the help of the new streetlights. 'Beyond myself, these streetlights bring security to the village," she said. 'I now feel safe when my father goes to the mosque at night.' ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
