Payment-Enforcement Technology and Business Models for High-Impact Borehole Solarisation in Tanzania

从2019年到2022年，在坦桑尼亚北部，SVRG和Omasi在EnergyCatalyst6赠款上合作，将创新的综合能源服务和生产利用技术带到被边缘化的马赛社区。该项目取得了巨大成功，创新的太阳能和生产利用技术安装在5个钻孔(取代柴油发电机)、两个社区微型电网和商业中心、两所学校和一个社区电台，直接影响超过12,000人。影响最大和最具商业潜力的技术是现有柴油动力钻孔的太阳能。我们能够安装创新的太阳能技术，而不是柴油系统，并为其他高价值的生产性用途提供动力，如磨粉。由于这些钻孔已经运行了多年，我们能够查阅他们的记录，并为运营商或社区钻孔委员会制定比他们每月支付的柴油费用更便宜的还款计划。在过去三年中，我们的任何一个装置都没有拖欠还款。这有几个原因：马赛文化、遗址的偏远和与我们的距离，不愿向外国人付款，而不是帮助亲戚。但主要原因是很容易违约，而且支付的道德义务较少，因为无论系统是否还款，它们都会继续运行。在这个项目中，我们打算研究和测试技术-解决方案，以集成到我们的系统中，在发生还款违约的情况下远程禁用它们。这比听起来要难得多。很容易屏蔽手机、太阳能家庭系统，甚至是Tanesco计量的电网连接，因为它们是密封的设备。将逆变器安装在建筑物中的50kW太阳能发电系统很难控制。可以很容易地绕过保险丝盒中的遥控开关。这就是为什么目前没有现成的解决方案来以这种方式控制大型的基于组件的系统。我们将研究执行控制功能的替代方案，以及如何使它们不可绕过，然后测试它们的性能以修订我们的业务和技术模型。如果成功，这将消除我们扩大这项非常负担得起的简单钻孔太阳能技术的能力的最大障碍，它将立即对经济和碳社区产生影响

From 2019-2022 in NorthernTanzania, SVRG and OMASI collaborated on an EnergyCatalyst6 grant to bring innovative integrated-energy-services and productive-use technologies to marginalised Maasai communities.The project has been a great success, with innovative solar-energy and productive-use technology installed at 5 boreholes (displacing diesel-generators), two community-minigrids and business-hubs, two schools and a community radio-station, directly impacting more than 12,000 people.The technology with highest impact and best commercial potential is the solarisation of existing diesel-powered boreholes. We are able to install innovative solar-technology instead of the diesel-system, and powers additional high-value productive-uses like flour milling. And because the boreholes have been operating for years, we are able to access their records and set repayment-plans for the operators or the community borehole-committees that are cheaper than the amount they were paying for diesel monthly.Not a single one of our installations has not at some time in the last three years defaulted on their repayments. There are several reasons for this: maasai culture, remoteness of the sites and distance from us, the reluctance to make payments to foreigners a higher priority than helping kin. But the main reason is that it is easy to default, and there is less moral obligation to pay, since the systems continue to operate whether or not they make repayments.In this project, we intend to research and test technology-solutions to integrate into our systems that could remotely disable them in the event of repayment defaults. This is more difficult than it sounds. It is easy to block a phone, a solar-home-system, or even a Tanesco metered grid-connection, since they are sealed units. A 50kW solar-power system with inverters mounted in a building is hard to control. Remote-controlled switches in fuse boxes can easily be bypassed. This is why there is no readily-available current solution for controlling large component-based systems in this fashion. We will look at alternatives for performing the control function, and how to make them non-bypassable, and then test their performance to revise our business and technology model. If successful, this will remove the single greatest barrier to our ability to scale-up this very affordable and simple borehole-solarisation technology, which has immediate economic and carbon community-impact