Electrifying Rural Development in Africa: displacing low-productivity manual labour activities and fossil-fuel generators in off-grid communities via a novel modular inverter design. 

Partners: Mobile Power Ltd (Lead), Swansea University

Country: Sierra Leone

Technology: Leave no one behind technologies and business models

Stage: Early

Stage: 9

Approximately 1 billion people in Africa do not have reliable access to the electricity grid. The only option to access electricity is through fossil-fuel generators. However, the majority of women farmers are not able to afford generators and so are trapped in being reliant on manual labour, which limits productivity and therefore income. 

Mobile Power supplies affordable, clean power to poor households and enterprises in off-grid communities across Africa using a pay-as-you-go smart battery rental system.

This feasibility project builds on previous Energy Catalyst Projects by focusing on a new product – a modular inverter – that complements the MOPO Batteries and enables off-grid communities to use AC appliances that are powered by affordable, clean energy, without any upfront costs.