Pay-N-Pump 2 - storage integration for home and institutional energy access, and improved irrigation impact

Pay-N-Pump是一种面向乌干达小规模农民的创新的智能数字现收现用抽水和灌溉解决方案，以推车形式构建，由Aptech Africa Ltd在Energy Catalyst 7项目中与SVRG合作开发。尽管COVID-延期，仍有超过65个系统进行了试验，农民观察到农作物产量和家庭收入增加了高达200%。来自客户的三条一致反馈是：1.灌溉时间与农场需求不符(最佳灌溉时间是黎明和黄昏，此时太阳能很弱)2.无法将该系统用于家庭或机构(如学校、诊所、教堂)的能源接入，例如用于照明、电话充电或其他新的微型企业业务3。在这个项目中，合作伙伴Aptech Africa和SVRG将寻求修改付费N泵技术，以包括现代、可靠的锂离子电池存储，既增强灌溉性能，更好地满足市场需求，同时使系统具有两用功能，从而既可以提供农田灌溉，也可以提供家庭或机构能源访问。这是一个相当大的技术挑战，但也是消费者面临的挑战，即找到一种能够在两种使用方案中优化系统性能和影响的设计。但这个项目的成功将创造出一种独特的、变革性的技术。目前，用户需要两个独立的系统来提供家庭和灌溉服务。这不仅昂贵，而且家用系统通常很小，不可靠，而且随着家庭能源使用量的增加，很难扩展。目前市场上还没有一种产品能够像我们建议的那样，在现收现付制商业模式中将这两种用例结合在一起，并且具有移动性，能够满足不同的需求，因此能够产生如此广泛的影响。我们的建模表明，增强型存储两用付费N泵可以将农场产量提高250%，并以使用两个独立系统的70%的成本提供灌溉和家庭能源。我们估计，这一解决方案的二合一性质将使我们的市场规模至少翻一番，从而不仅显著提高乌干达的农业生产率，而且还为农村社区的能源获取提供了一个新颖而有吸引力的解决方案，因为它将能源获取从成本转变为盈利机会。该项目同时涉及SDG-7(清洁和负担得起的能源)、SDG-1(无贫困)、SDG-2(零饥饿)、SDG-6(清洁水和卫生)以及SDG-13(气候行动)。

PAY-N-PUMP is an innovative smart digital pay-as-you-go water-pumping and irrigation solution for small scale farmers in Uganda, built in a push-cart format, developed by Aptech Africa Ltd in an Energy Catalyst 7 project, in partnership with SVRG. Despite COVID-delays, more than 65 systems have been piloted, and farmers have observed crop-yields and household-income increase by as much as 200%.The 3 pieces of consistent feedback from customers are:1. hours of irrigation do not match farm demand (optimum timing is dawn and dusk, when solar power is weak)2. inability to use the system for household or institutional (eg schools, clinic, church) energy access, eg for lighting, phone charging or other new micro-entrepreneurial businesses3. system is out of the price range of many farmersIn this project, partners Aptech Africa and SVRG, will seek to modify the Pay-N-Pump technology to include modern, reliable Li-Ion battery storage to both enhance irrigation performance to better match market-demand, and simultaneously to make the system dual-use, so that it can both provide farm irrigation and also household or institutional energy access.This is a considerable technical challenge, but also a consumer challenge to find a design that can optimise system performance and impact in both use-case scenarios. But success in this project would see the creation of a unique, transformative technology. At the moment, users need two separate systems for household and irrigation services. This is not only expensive, but household systems are typically small and unreliable, and hard to scale as household energy-usage increases. There is no product currently on the market that combines the two use-cases as we propose, in a PAYG business model, and which is mobile for ultimate flexibility and ability to serve different needs, and therefore that is able to create such a wide range of impacts.Our modelling suggests that the storage-enhanced dual-use PAY-N-PUMP could increase farm yields by 250%, and provide irrigation and household energy at 70% of the cost of using two separate systems. We estimate that the two-in-one nature of this solution will at least double our market size, and consequently not only significantly increase agricultural productivity in Uganda, but also provide a novel and attractive solution for energy access in rural communities, since it transforms energy-access from a cost to a profit-making opportunity.This project simultaneously addresses SDG-7(Clean and affordable energy), SDG-1 (No Poverty), SDG-2 (Zero Hunger), SDG-6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG-13 (Climate Action).