Innovating Advanced Battery Expansion for Scalable, Sustainable Minigrids

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Our project will develop an innovative digital platform to size, finance, locally source, and lease advanced batteries (like li-ion variations and flow batteries) to sustain expandable minigrid systems, providing long-term, affordable energy access. Streamlining this battery expansion value chain can lower CAPEX and support commercial scalability for minigrids across Sierra Leone and the broader region. Our study will assess technical and financial feasibility at select Energicity sites in Sierra Leone while examining market dynamics across the country's wider minigrid sector. The project will investigate practical challenges of the expansion process by upgrading one trial site using Aceleron's 2nd life li-ion packs, testing a new Battery Management System (BMS) that allows considerable battery stacking (an uncommon feature among similar "drop-in" lead-acid replacements) that broadens minigrid expandability while reducing need for costly additional inverters.Clean power minigrids offer the least-cost electrification solution for roughly half of the 600 million people lacking energy access across sub-Saharan Africa (ESMAP 2019, BNEF 2020, AMDA 2020). Today, the region hosts roughly 2,000 minigrids with thousands more under active planning, and Sierra Leone, specifically, is home to over 100 systems (ESMAP 2019, BNEF 2020).One major benefit of a minigrid is expandable capacity, which allows it to scale from basic lighting up to productive-use loads like grain mills, electric cooking, and refrigeration. As successful energy incentive programs -- such as productive-use zones and appliance financing -- have shown, increasing use of certain power applications will improve local economies and strengthen the long-term viability of a minigrid (ESMAP 2019).However, for minigrids to achieve these benefits, phased capacity expansion is critical. Our project aims to support this key -- yet unaddressed -- need by innovating expandable battery solutions that enable low-cost minigrid capacity upgrades -- a critical requirement for long-term, sustainable systems.A majority of the region's existing minigrids currently rely on low-performance lead-acid batteries -- as will most new systems for years to come -- due to high upfront costs and limited access to more durable advanced technologies like li-ion variations and flow batteries (BNEF 2020). With short cycle life and low discharge capacity, lead-acid requires more maintenance and constrains power output. Additionally, the inherent chemistry of lead-acid prohibits expansion on aging battery banks. This severely complicates minigrid capacity growth -- a key factor for energy-based community development. Our project will address this problem to improve minigrid viability and scale across Sierra Leone and the broader region.