Pay-as-you-go solar technology is making it possible for remote and off-grid communities in Africa to generate their own electricity. (Image: Eight19) The IndiGo solar lighting system bypasses the need for a grid connection and works just like a prepaid cellular phone. (Image: Eight19) MEDIA CONTACTS • Simon Bransfield-Garth Eight19 +44 (0) 1223 437 437RELATED ARTICLES • Africa leads solar laptop revolution • SA becoming a renewable energy hub • African sun could light world’s cities • Mega development for Central AfricaWilma den HartighPay-as-you-go solar technology is making it possible for remote and off-grid communities in Africa to generate their own electricity, reducing the need for environmentally harmful and dangerous lighting practices such as burning kerosene oil.Pay-as-you-go products have become synonymous with mobile phones, but now developers of a new solar energy service are using the same business model to bring clean, affordable and renewable electricity to remote communities in Africa.In South Africa, similar upfront payment products such as prepaid electricity are available, but this only applies to users connected to the national grid.According to Eight19, developers of the IndiGo solar electricity system, 1.6-billion people (more than one fifth of the world’s population), lack access to electricity via a grid and pay high prices for kerosene to serve basic needs such as lighting.Prepaid technology for electricityThe IndiGo solar lighting system, developed by the UK-based solar technology company, consists of a battery pack, a photovoltaic solar panel, lights and a phone charging device.The system, which bypasses the need for a grid connection, can light two small rooms for seven hours at a time and charge small portable devices such as mobile phones.The device is affordable and users can generate electricity for less than their current spend on kerosene. Users can purchase the energy the device produces for as little as US$1(R8) a week.Nyungura James Ode, a rural farmer in the Nimule region in the new nation of South Sudan, explains how his life has changed since he started using an IndiGo device.“I save about half of the money I would spend on batteries and kerosene,” Ode says.Before, he often had to travel to a market three kilometres away from his home to buy batteries for his family’s battery-powered lanterns. He also had to charge mobile phones at charging stations in town twice a week.“I can spend more time at home now that I don’t have to walk to the village and wait for phones to charge,” he says.As easy as buying airtimeThe IndiGo device works just like a prepaid cellular phone. When users want to purchase electricity, they buy a scratch card from a local vendor and load credit onto their solar cell.Power from the cell then charges the battery in the IndiGo box, making electricity available.According to Eight19, the pay-as-you-go model is an affordable way to provide power for low-energy lighting and battery charging in homes, schools and workplaces in emerging markets.IndiGo can be used to provide light for children to do their homework, it enables stallholders to work when it is dark, and supplies the energy to power internet connections.The risk of fraud is also very low as the units operate using top-up codes that are securely sent to owners’ mobile phones in the form of text messages. Without the codes, the system can’t generate electricity.A need for electricityThe IndiGo devices are already improving the quality of life of people living in Africa.Eight19 first launched in Kenya in September last year, and now the company has plans to distribute IndiGo in South Sudan.Eight19 has partnered with WorldVenture, an international charitable organisation, to install the systems in rural villages in Nimule in South Sudan. The developer intends to distribute 1 000 units in the first half of 2012 to the region.South Sudan is the fourth African country to receive IndiGo devices. So far, remote towns in Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan and Zambia have adopted the IndiGo electrification scheme.According to Thomas Bell, South Sudan director of projects at WorldVenture, there is a great need for off-grid power in South Sudan.“Sometimes the poorest even burn grass despite the smoke health hazard and fire risk,” Bell says.Eight19’s pay-as-you-go solar device is the ideal solution to give people access to electricity in a country that lacks infrastructure.“IndiGo has the potential to transform the energy market by enabling local energy production. People can access power without having to wait for the grid,” says Bell.Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO of Eight19, says that the response to the product has been very positive since it launched in Kenya.A new way to access electricityAccording to Steve Andrews, CEO of UK-based charity SolarAid, pay-as-you-go solar power could play a major role in rural African development.Andrews says that just as mobile phones have made it possible for people to access telephone technology without a landline system, Eight19’s approach could do the same for electricity provision to the world’s poorest people.Bransfield-Garth hopes that his company can also help to reduce global carbon emissions by eliminating the use of kerosene for lighting in Africa.In the future, Eight19 wants to develop larger solar systems with greater capacities to power televisions, radios and fridges.He says that this means that people living in remote communities could have access to similar levels of electricity available in big cities. read more
21 November 2012Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa aim to conclude the setting up of a BRICS development bank at the next BRICS summit, taking place in Durban from 25 to 27 March next year, says Deputy International Relations and Cooperation Minister Marius Fransman.“If this happens it would give a major boost to some of the development needs we have,” Fransman told a panel discussion on the topic, “South Africa: A strong brick within BRICS”, at the University of Stellenbosch on Wednesday.At the last BRICS summit in New Delhi in March, leaders of the five countries considered a proposal to set up a BRICS-led South-South development bank, funded and managed by BRICS and other developing countries.The International Relations and Cooperation Department, under an initiative led by Director-General Ambassador Jerry Matjila, is also considering setting up a think-tank to look at diplomatic and economic opportunities between South Africa and its BRICS partners, Fransman said.He said South Africa’s overall trade with BRICS countries had more than doubled from US$9.2-billion in 2005 to $20.4-billion in 2010, while Africa’s trade with BRICS countries was expected to reach one-third of total trade on the continent in 2015, up from one-fifth of total trade in 2010.Fransman listed the three main objectives that South Africa seeks to achieve from its BRICS membership as boosting job creation and the domestic economy; supporting African infrastructure development and industrial development; and partnering with South partners to overall world governance organisations such as the UN Security Council.South Africa also needed to look beyond its population of 50-million and at how it could position itself in a continent of one-billion people that is fast rising economically, Fransman said.The rationale for South Africa’s involvement in BRICS should be in how it could link the African continent with the other BRICS members.Source: SAnews.gov.za read more
Considering Cape Town is going through their worst drought in history, we revisit an old story that may provide a solution. In 2011, a young South African entrepreneur developed a product that allowed people to have a bath without using water. His reason? To get millions to hygienically skip a bath once a week to save the precious resource of water.Ludwick Marishane is the winner of the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. (Image: Ludwick Marishane, Facebook)Brand South African reporterImagine taking a bath anywhere, at any time, without using the traditional method of water.Now it is possible, thanks to a young South African entrepreneur who developed a product that allows people who have limited access to water to maintain their standards of hygiene.Ludwick Marishane hails originally from Motetema on the border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, a town located not too far from the small Kwaggavoetpad Nature Reserve. He completed his fourth year as a commerce student at the University of Cape Town.His product, called DryBath, is a clear germicidal and moisturising gel that’s applied to skin in the manner of waterless hand cleaners, although it has a sweet aroma rather than the distinctive alcohol smell of the latter.‘Doing the work of soap and water’DryBath does the work of water and soap and it earned Marishane the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award, with a US$10 000 (about R86 000 then) prize to boot.The product has positive implications for millions of people in Africa and other parts of the developing world where lack of regular access to clean water leads to reduced basic hygiene and a lower quality of life.Children, for example, often have to walk for hours to fetch clean water, which detracts from the time they can spend at school, doing homework or just playing.To show solidarity for and raise awareness of the millions of affected people, Marishane organised a no-bath weekend from 5 to 7 July 2013, which coincided with the fourth anniversary of the invention of DryBath.His main goal was to get 10-million people to hygienically skip a bath once a week during 2013, even if they don’t use DryBath, and save the precious resource of water.DryBath is manufactured by Western Cape-based gel cosmetic specialists BioEarth Labs for HeadBoy Industries, the company started by Marishane to develop and market the product.Watch:Laziness leads to inspirationMarishane grew up in rural Limpopo, where as a 17-year-old he was chatting one day with a close friend, discussing typical teenage topics and sunbathing in the winter sun.Full of imagination, the friend asked: “Why can’t they invent something that you can just apply to your skin so that you don’t have to take a bath nor shower?”Marishane felt the same way, and that planted the seed that would germinate into DryBath.“I came up with this idea all because I didn’t feel like taking a bath,” he joked. Although he only had high school science knowledge, Marishane got onto the internet via his mobile phone and researched statistics on water access, as well as the composition and manufacture of lotions and creams.He finally came up with a formula. Some months later and after much experimentation, he held a bottle of DryBath in his hand and went on to obtain a patent through his company.One 20ml DryBath sachet can do the work of one bath, and Marishane claims it saves about 80 litres of water on average with every use.Access to water is crucialDuring his research he found out that over 2.5-billion people in the world live without access to clean water – 450-millon of which are in Africa and five-million in South Africa.Continued research revealed that sanitation-related diseases are often found within these poor areas and the lack of water is one of the main causes of the infections.Saving water is a job that everyone needs to focus on. But there are many areas around the world that have no access to safe water, or any water at all, and people often have to walk long distances to get fresh water.Living without water can also lead to death, as waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and schistosomiasis are found in areas that lack clean water.Trachoma, a disease caused by dirt getting into the eye through agents such as flies or towels, affects 350-million people and leaves eight-million of them permanently blind through recurring infection.According to Water.org, nearly 10% of the global disease burden could be reduced through improved water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resource management.Getting the product out thereMarishane first approached charity organisations for support, but says he was turned back because of his age and because of doubt that his concept would ever work. Back at the drawing board, he put together a lengthy and detailed proposal – all done on his trusty Nokia.With paper in hand, he approached the corporate world in search of sponsors, endorsements and investors;since then, he has struck up partnerships with WaterAid and Oxfam.DryBath is now also manufactured commercially for clients such as hotels, music festival organisers, major global airlines – one of which is British Airways – and governments for soldiers in the field.Source: Headboy Industries IncThis article was originally published in January 2013.Would you like to use this article in your publication or on your website? See Using Brand South Africa material. read more