Increasing energy access with RENERLITE

Problem: Lack of access to clean and reliable electricity supply.

We developed a compact, affordable renewable energy solution that's easy to deploy and can be used to power basic appliances in a home. It is portable which makes it easy to move from one location to another and It depends solely on the sun with solar panel for power generation keeping it's operational expenses very low.

We had the opportunity to travel to an offgrid community in Nigeria where we deployed a solar mini-grid system to power about three homes The beneficiaries were able to power their gadgets, TV and lighting. In a community where there was absolutely no access to electricity grid, the beneficiaries enjoyed 24hrs access to the electricity from a solar energy source. Neighbors also visited to charge their mobile devices. They used to spend N30 everyday to charge each gadget but paid only N50 everyday to power their entire home including lighting. The impact of the small prototype mini-grid we deployed was high. 

Total energy demand in Nigeria is about 30GW but Nigeria currently generates an average of 4GW from all her power plants combined which is very low. The transmission and distribution grids are very unstable due to aging and they need to be revamped. There's also need to extend the grid network to many offgrid locations in Nigeria.

The lack of electricity supply has led to very huge digital divide with many students, not just in offgrid communities but also in urban communities in Nigeria, unable to have reliable access to internet access and online platforms that could help improve their knowledge on subject areas and enable them make a difference in the society. It has also led to people improvising by using kerosene lanterns and other means that are harmful to the health and very expensive to maintain hence impacting their standards of living negatively. 

According to AWKA, an international organization, Power for All, about 93 million people Lack electricity supply in Nigeria, according to Quartz Africa (qz.com), 600 million people Lack electricity supply across Africa and according to ourworldindata.org, about 940m people Lack electricity supply all over the world.

Our solution has the capacity to solve so many problems related to social security.

1. It'll enable anyone irrespective of their location to be able to have reliable access to electricity supply to power their basic appliances and gadgets.

2. It'll help bridge digital divide by making it possible for homes power up their gadgets aiding access to information through radio and internet access.

3. The product eliminates the need for most people to depend on health degrading and harmful sources of power eg use of candles, kerosene lamps or gasoline generators.

4. It reduces expenses incurred on energy since it fully depends on the sun for energy and has energy storage system for period of the day when there's no sunshine.

5. It improves the overall standard of living of many homes as children are able to have access to light to aid the education and learning and parents are able to use electricity to aid their businesses.

6. It'll also help SMEs to grow faster by increasing their profit margin through reduction in their business operating expenses and increased productivity.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

We transformed a large disjointed system into a compact energy solution. 

We wanted to increase our energy access penetration across Nigeria but also making our solution very affordable. 

We realised that some of the aspects of our solar energy service that adds to consumer cost are transportation and installation service. We also could not deploy our solution to various states in Nigeria because of distance, economics of deployment and insecurity. 

RENERLITE solves all these problems.

It's plug and play hence does not require any special technical expertise to setup hence removing installation cost. 

There are cheap efficient logistics companies that help in transferring goods across Nigeria which means we can now easily deploy our renewable energy solution across the country.

The materials used in building the product enclosure are sourced for locally and the entire fabrication is deployed by the Renerworld team.

Another amazing thing is that we just realised we can help in bridging digital divide through this solution by incorporating internet access facility into the product which enables us to both provide power and internet service solution.

This product will greatly impact communities and societies in which it is deployed.

Our major competitor is MTN Lumos but despite our system being of a little higher capacity than LUMOS, the cost of getting a LUMOS is 40% more than we offer our system which makes it far more affordable.

Lastly, RENERLITE has given the Renerworld team a platform to further innovate and improve lives which we'll continue to do.

We deployed the solution to two users ahead of launch. One them has been using the system for almost 11 months now and the other user started using the system about 2 months ago. The product was launched 3 weeks ago but the feedback from the prelaunch users helped in better understanding how to evolve the product and serve users better.

Link to the video of our launch has been added to this application. 

This is our landing page: www.renerworld.com/renerlite 

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

This solution will greatly improve energy access not just in urban areas but also in rural communities. 

When users are able to have access to reliable source of electricity, it'll aid their use of mobile gadgets and other electronics appliances which will foaster mobile communication and connective. 

With our current plan to deploy internet connectivity solution into the product,  it'll further help improve connectivity across the country, Nigeria and possible across the continent, Africa.

We just completed plans on packaging and platforms for ease of deployment yesterday, we'll start deploying the product by 21st of August.

Only the two prelaunch customers currently use the system. 

By December 2020, our goal is:

1. To have deployed up to 5000 RENERLITES devices.

2. We also aim to have also introduced our internet connectivity solution into the product to help increase both energy access and internet connectivity even in rural offgrid communities. 

Barriers:

1. Production capacity.

2. Finance

3. Material sourcing.

1. We intend to increase our production capacity as soon as our orders get to a certain level.

2. We are really depending on grants like this prize to really help provide finance to accomplish our goal on this product deployment. 

3. Availability of finance would greatly help our efficiency in material sourcing and also help us in beating the cost of our solution even down.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.organisation. 

Fulltime employees: 4

part time employees: 3

I am the CEO / CTO of the company, I specialize in performing solar PV systems design, power systems analysis and design, electronic circuit simulations, electrical systems design and control systems engineering for the organization.

Ayodeji Akintoye, COO: He's a passionate software engineer who is good at software and hardware programming. He's in charge of our website development, Software application development and General ICT activities of the company.

King Oluwatosin: She studied Mechanical engineering. She's in charge of mechanical systems design, simulation and product modeling, simulation and design and renewable energy system project modeling and design for the company.

Benjamin Oluwatomisin: She studied History and sociology. She's the amazing person incharge of Renerworld's sales and marketing operation.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

The only payment model we currently offer is cash purchase of the product.

We plan to offer rental or lease payment model in the future but for now we only do outright cash purchase. The product can be ordered through our website. If the order is within the state where we operate, we would deliver directly to the customer but if the order is coming from other states or outside the country, we'll process the order on an ecommerce platform that delivers goods across Africa.

Operational cost is almost zero on the use of the product. The entire package includes an 100W solar panel that helps in generating power to charge the system. 

We would be generating funds from profit made on sales of the product.

We are a renewable energy company hence we currently generate funds from solar installation services.

The RENERLITE product sale would be a sustainable one since there will be profit on every sale made on the product.

None

We're seeking for grants that can help aid our operation.

Grants up to $100000 would really help us in development and deployment of the product. 

We need the grant as soon as we can access it.

Purchase of vehicle for material procurement and product delivery: $10000

Procurement of materials and other operational expenses: $35,000

Marketing and advertisment: $20,000

Large production line setup: $35,000

We need funds inorder to increase our efficiency in procurement of materials used for our service and to setup up larger production lines. 

We need funds to increase our marketing effort greatly.

We also need funds to purchase vehicle for easy of transportation of materials and goods to aid our product and service delivery.

We would like to partner with solutions technology organisations that can help contribute towards our growth in research and development of new products we're trying to develop to aid energy access.

Logistics is a major issue and there's also a lot of challenges with deploying projects at locations very far from our base largely attached to the ease of doing business in Nigeria. Partnering with organisations in various strategic locations will help us in delivering our services more efficiently through them.

We are a very innovative goal driven organisation and our ultimate goal is to be able to provide best renewable energy solutions and the most compelling prices ever.

Currently, we would like to partner with top solar energy companies like Canadian solar for solar panels , Luminous for batteries and major companies like growatt for inverter systems helping us to drop the cost of our service.

We're also looking to partner with lithium ion batteries technology companies like Panasonic. We plan to develop efficient compact energy storage solutions. We aim to introduce it into our newly developed product aswell to increase packing density, reduce weight and also increase power density.