Solar Powered Milling: pioneering efficient and affordable staple food processing in Africa

**项目愿景**：开发一种太阳能磨矿解决方案，可以与非洲农村离网地区最大的化石燃料单一固定用途之一——柴油磨矿竞争。该项目将通过消除技术、商业和财务瓶颈，为有史以来最高效、最智能、最经济的太阳能磨粒机Agsol micromill_的快速规模化进行测试和准备。MicroMill作为4级太阳能系统的锚载，可以提供一系列其他能源消耗效益。**主要目标：**要扩大MicroMill的规模，我们需要1)优化产品设计；2)为大规模生产做准备，以降低成本；3)为公平融资产品设计硬件和知识，使金融上被排斥的人也能使用它；4)准备商业进入市场战略。**重点领域：**实验项目将发展Agsol的制造能力，为大规模生产规模的经济做准备，并开发和测试物联网集成产品融资工具。这些试验最初将集中在肯尼亚，然后在项目期间扩展到另外5个国家。该项目的结果将支持商业业务案例和产品路线图，以吸引投资资本在项目期间之外进行扩展。在为期18个月的项目中，500多台微型磨坊将在融资下生产和销售，提供超过300千瓦的新太阳能装机容量，避免近40万升柴油，1000吨二氧化碳，解放300万小时的妇女时间，并提供一系列其他社会影响效益。**项目创新：**该项目将把最具创新性的小型太阳能磨粒机提升到一个新的水平，为商业规模做好准备。在完成大规模生产的核心产品设计的同时，该项目将开发硬件、软件和知识，以实现新颖的“按需付费”功能。集成的智能技术和物联网技术将实时监测电力消耗，作为创收的代理，并应用可变融资机制，以便高利用率用户比低利用率用户支付更快。这种方法迎合了广泛的客户群，特别是那些来自社会经济地位较低地区的客户。我们不熟悉任何其他生产用电器公司提供这种以客户为中心的包容性融资。

**Project vision**: To develop a solar milling solution that can out compete one of the largest single stationary uses of fossil fuels in off-grid areas of rural Africa -- diesel powered mills. The project will test and prepare for the rapid scaling of the most efficient, smart, and affordable solar grain milling machine ever developed -- the Agsol _MicroMill_ -- by removing technical, commercial, and financial bottlenecks. The MicroMill functions as an anchor load to a Tier 4 solar system that can deliver a range of other energy offtake benefits.**Key Objectives:** To scale the MicroMill, we need to 1) optimise product design; 2) prepare for mass manufacturing to drive down costs 3) design the hardware and knowledge for a fair financing product to make it accessible to the financially excluded, and 4) prepare a commercial go-to-market strategy.**Focus areas:** The experimental project will develop Agsol's manufacturing capabilities to prepare for mass manufacturing scales of economy, and develop and test IoT integrated product financing tools. These trials will initially focus on Kenya, and then expand during the project into 5 additional countries.The results of this project will support a commercial business case and product roadmap that can attract investment capital to scale beyond the project period. During the 18 month project over 500 MicroMills will be manufactured and sold under financing, delivering over 300 kW of new installed solar capacity, avoid nearly 400,000 litres of diesel, 1,000 tonnes of CO2, liberate 3 million hours of women's time, and provide a host of other social impact benefits.**Project innovation:** This project will take the most innovative small solar grain milling machine to the next level ready for commercial scale-up. Along with finalising the core product design for mass manufacturing, the project will develop the hardware, software and knowledge that enables novel 'pay-as-you-earn' capabilities. Integrated smart tech and IoT technologies will monitor power consumption in real-time, being a proxy for income generation, and apply a variable financing mechanism so that high utilisation users pay faster than low utilisation customers. This approach caters for a broad customer base, especially those from lower socioeconomic areas. We are not familiar with any other productive use appliance company offering such customer-centric inclusive financing.