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.

非洲农村发展电气化：通过新型模块化逆变器设计取代离网社区的低生产率体力劳动活动和化石燃料发电机。

• 批准号: 10043594
• 金额: $ 27.38万
• 依托单位: MOBILE POWER LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Feasibility Studies
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10043594
• 关键词: Electrifying; Rural; Development; Africa; displacing

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.This project will create a new collaboration between Mobile Power and Dr Krijn Peters from Swansea University who has been researching in Sierra Leone and Liberia for 25 years. He studied the impact of the spread of motorcycle taxis(okadas) that enabled women farmers to begin to sell crops at local markets, facilitating the transition from semi-subsistence farming to cash crop production. Mobile Power's EC7 project was aimed at electrifying this okada revolution using the MOPOMax Battery and solar swapping stations to power electric-motorcycles and expand their reach, into areas where fuel is expensive or not available.ADDITIONALITY: This EC9 project will test the feasibility of a low-cost inverter that would enable the MOPOMax Battery to replace fossil-fuel generators in the Battery's 'Second Life' once it no longer can be used for e-mobility. Our hypothesis is that not only could the MOPOMax Batteries + Inverter undercut generators in cost, but they could also help the women farmers to increase their income by replacing some of the low-productivity/manual agricultural processing activities with mechanised ones. This is due to Mobile Power's pay-per-use model where the MOPO Battery and Inverter will be rented out whenever the women need the electricity. This fits with the irregular and infrequent patterns of energy use that rural farmers need for pumping, milling and refrigeration, depending on seasonal harvests. This irregular demand creates a barrier for women to purchase a generator and inverter, which are both too expensive if only needed for certain weeks of the year. In comparison, a women farmer can come to a MOPO Hub and rent a MOPO Battery and Inverter whenever she needs it, with no deposit, no credit check or fixed payment structure.

非洲约有10亿人无法可靠地使用电网。获得电力的唯一选择是通过化石燃料发电机。然而，大多数女性农民买不起发电机，因此陷入了依赖体力劳动的困境，这限制了生产率，从而限制了收入。移动电力使用即付即用的智能电池租赁系统向非洲离网社区的贫困家庭和企业提供负担得起的清洁电力。这个可行性项目建立在以前Energy Catalyst项目的基础上，专注于一种新产品-模块化逆变器-补充MOPO电池，使离网社区能够使用由负担得起的清洁能源供电的交流电器，这个项目将在Mobile Power和斯旺西大学的Krijn Peters博士之间建立一个新的合作伙伴关系，Krijn Peters博士已经在塞拉利昂和利比里亚研究了25年。他研究了摩托车出租车(Okadas)的普及所产生的影响，摩托车出租车使女农民能够开始在当地市场销售农作物，促进了从半自给农业向经济作物生产的过渡。Mobile Power的EC7项目旨在利用MOPOMax电池和太阳能交换站为电动摩托车供电，并将其覆盖范围扩大到燃料昂贵或缺乏燃料的地区，从而为冈田革命充电。补充：这个EC9项目将测试一种低成本逆变器的可行性，一旦MOPOMax电池不能再用于电子移动，它将使MOPOMax电池在电池的第二生命中取代化石燃料发电机。我们的假设是，MOPOMax电池+逆变器不仅可以降低发电机的成本，而且还可以帮助女农民增加收入，用机械化的方式取代一些低生产率/手工农业加工活动。这是由于Mobile Power的按用付费模式，只要女性需要用电，MOPO电池和逆变器就会被出租。这与农村农民抽水、碾磨和制冷所需的不规律和不频繁的能源使用模式相吻合，这取决于季节性收成。这种不规律的需求为女性购买发电机和逆变器制造了障碍，如果只在一年中的特定几周需要，这两种设备都太贵了。相比之下，女性农民可以在需要的时候到MOPO中心租用一辆MOPO电池和逆变器，不需要押金，不需要信用检查，也不需要固定的支付结构。