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.

非洲大约有10亿人没有可靠的电网接入。获得电力的唯一选择是通过化石燃料发电机。然而，大多数女农民买不起发电机，因此陷入依赖体力劳动的困境，这限制了生产力，从而限制了收入。移动电源使用现收现付的智能电池租赁系统，为非洲各地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的能源催化剂项目的基础上，重点关注一种新产品——模块化逆变器——它补充了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设备，而不需要任何前期成本。这个项目将在移动电力和斯旺西大学的克里恩·彼得斯博士之间建立一个新的合作关系，他已经在塞拉利昂和利比里亚研究了25年。他研究了摩托出租车（okadas）的普及所产生的影响，它使女性农民能够开始在当地市场上出售作物，促进了从半自给农业向经济作物生产的过渡。移动电力公司的EC7项目旨在利用MOPOMax电池和太阳能交换站为电动摩托车提供动力，并扩大其覆盖范围，使其进入燃料昂贵或无法获得的地区。附加功能：这个EC9项目将测试一种低成本逆变器的可行性，该逆变器将使MOPOMax电池在电池的“第二生命”中取代化石燃料发电机，一旦它不再用于电动汽车。我们的假设是，MOPOMax电池+逆变器不仅可以降低发电机的成本，而且还可以通过用机械化活动取代一些低生产率/手工农业加工活动来帮助女农民增加收入。这是由于移动电力的按使用付费模式，当妇女需要电力时，MOPO电池和逆变器将被出租。这符合农村农民抽水、碾磨和冷藏所需的不规律和不频繁的能源使用模式，这取决于季节性收成。这种不规律的需求给女性购买发电机和逆变器造成了障碍，如果一年中的某些星期需要，这两种设备都太贵了。相比之下，女性农民可以随时到MOPO中心租用MOPO电池和逆变器，无需押金，无需信用检查或固定付款结构。

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.