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

**项目愿景**：开发一种太阳能研磨解决方案，该解决方案可以与非洲农村地区离网地区最大的单一化石燃料固定用途之一--柴油发电厂--竞争。该项目将通过消除技术、商业和资金瓶颈，为有史以来最高效、最智能、最实惠的太阳能谷物研磨机--Agsol_MicroMill--的快速扩展做好测试和准备。微磨坊作为第四层太阳能系统的固定负载，可以提供一系列其他能源分流优势。**主要目标：**为了扩大微磨坊的规模，我们需要1)优化产品设计；2)为大规模制造做好准备，以降低成本3)设计公平融资产品的硬件和知识，使其能够供金融领域之外的人使用，以及4)准备商业上市战略。**重点领域：**实验项目将发展Agsol的制造能力，为经济规模的大规模制造做准备，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案例和产品路线图，可以吸引投资资本在项目期后扩大规模。在18个月的项目中，500多个微型磨粉机将在融资下制造和销售，提供超过300千瓦的新安装太阳能发电能力，避免近400,000升柴油，1,000吨二氧化碳，解放300万小时的妇女时间，并提供大量其他社会影响效益。**项目创新：**该项目将把最具创新性的小型太阳能谷物研磨机提升到一个新的水平，为商业放大做好准备。除了最终确定大规模生产的核心产品设计外，该项目还将开发硬件、软件和知识，以实现新的“按收入付费”能力。集成的智能技术和物联网技术将实时监控电力消耗，作为创收的指标，并应用可变融资机制，使高利用率用户比低利用率客户支付更快。这种方法迎合了广泛的客户基础，特别是那些来自较低社会经济领域的客户。我们不熟悉其他生产用途家电公司提供如此以客户为中心的普惠融资。

**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.