OffGridBox: solar desalination model

OffGridBox: providing desalinated & purified water, as well as solar energy to coastal communities around the world.

Coastal communities increasingly have to deal with water that is brackisch or salty. Rising sea levels threaten any existing fresh water supplies. Our OffGridBox, as 6x6x6ft container with solar panels on the top and a water desalination and purification system inside, can desalinate and purify sea water. In addition, the solar energy can be used to power battery packs, which people can use to light their homes and charge their phones when there is no electricity grid, or when power is out due to hurricanes or other natural disasters. Our solution will allow coastal communities around the world to be more resilient and to continue to live where they have always been.

Our solution is innovative because it meets two basic needs that millions of people around the world have: lack of clean water and lack of electricity. 

Our technology is innovative because we use a very energy efficient way to clean and desalinate water, which means that we can provide our client communities with 5000 liters of clean water per day.

Our business model is innovative because we use Pay As You Go in a way that even the poorest people have access to our services: they come to collect their energy and water package whenever they have the resources.

Technology is the basis of our solution. We have a patent pending water purification technology; we use solar energy for purifying water, energy storage and to power a WiFi hotspot; we use remote monitoring to track customer behavior and predict maintenance issues; we use mobile money for payments; we carry out R&D to continuously improve performance and reduce costs.

We have been focusing on expanding our Rwandan operations (energy and purified water), but we are preparing to enter new markets like Bangladesh and Philippines where the need for desalinized water is very high, especially in coastal areas. A previous model of our desalination OffGridBox model will soon be upgraded, so that we can produce 5000 liters of clean water per day instead of the previous 1500 liters. 

We plan to have pilots in Bangladesh and the Philippines within the next 6 months, using local business partners. By the end of 12 months these pilots will have been scaled up.

With our box, we contribute to the achievement of 10 different SDGs, including SDG 1 (focus on poor customers), SDG 3 (improved health through clean water), SDG 4 (electric lights to study at night), SDG 5 (women empowerment through jobs), SDG 6 (affordable clean water), SDG 7 (access to renewable energy), SDG 8 (direct and indirect employment), SDG 9 (access to internet), SDG 10 (rising rural income), SDG 13 (reduced CO2 emissions).

Within the next 3-5 years, we want to have 200 up and running in 5 different countries, having the above impact on the lives of our target communities.

We do a market survey using a MIT D-Lab questionnaire to identify water/electricity needs. After deciding on a new location, we install our box in the community, we hire 2-4 women operators, and our sales and marketing team starts to sell our kits, especially at community gatherings. Customers can walk to the box to recharge and get water, or they come to one of the kiosks that we install within 2-3 km around the box, where our delivery services come a few times per day. By adding internet and selling appliances, we think we can increase our customers' electricity demands.

We have sold 29 boxes in 9 different countries, serving around 20,000 people. Furthermore, we have installed 8 boxes in Rwanda, the (growing) customer base of which currently varies between 50 and 350 each. 10 more will be installed in the coming weeks. We contribute to the achievement of 10 SDGs: SDG1 (focus on poor customers), SDG3 (improved health through clean water), SDG4 (electric lights to study at night), SDG5 (women empowerment through jobs), SDG6 (affordable clean water), SDG7 (access to renewable energy), SDG8 (direct and indirect employment), SDG9 (access to internet), SDG10 (rising rural income), SDG13 (reduced CO2 emissions).

Each OffGridBox can cater to 400 households, (2000 people), supplying them with clean water and Tier 1 electricity. In the next 12 months, we plan to grow our boxes in Rwanda to 50, as well as 10 in Bangladesh and Philippines. Over the next 3 years, these numbers should be 150 boxes in Rwanda, and 50 boxes in Bangladesh and Philippines, and having some pilots in more new markets.

This means that in Rwanda, we will impact 300,000 people, in both Bangladesh and the Philippines 100,000 people, and several thousand people in similar markets, like DRC, Uganda and Ghana. 

Emiliano Cecchini, CEO, 20 years’ experience building sustainable utility solutions for impoverished regions. 
Davide Bonsignore, COO, 9 years’ experience designing and deploying off-grid renewable energy technologies.
Andrea Baldini, CTO, 11 years’ experience as engineer in renewable energy, energy saving, and water treatment.
Bas Berends, VP International Partnerships, 20 years’ experience in diplomacy and sustainable development.
Benoit Karekezi, MD Innotech Ltd, over 20 years’ experience in engineering, including solar energy and water. 
Troy Billet, US Director, several years’ experience helping startups grow and scale, consultant at Techstars 2017. 
Kathryn Chelminski, Strategic partnerships, over 5 years’ experience working on energy and international affairs.

Our revenue model is as follows: we have our OffGridBox pre-financed by (impact) investors. We then sell the desalinated & purified water, as well as solar energy through battery packs or in the form of a minigrid to our customers at an affordable price. We plan to cater to 200-400 households per box, depending on the number of times families come to collect the water and re-charge their battery packs. Gross revenues should add up to $15,000 per annum, on a $35,000 investment. This means that the investment is paid back in about 3-4 years. With a lifespan of 20 years, the OffGridBox should generate a very attractive return on investment, making our business sustainable, profitable, and easy to scale.

The Solve Challenges are a unique way to showcase new technologies like ours, that are intended to help solve current problems. We really believe in being part of a community of like-minded people, who have overlapping goals and who want to help each other to achieve their dreams. As a winner of a Not Impossible Award, we know that it is important to aim high, and be open to constructive advice from critical peers or even competitors. That is the only way to advance and make things really happen.

Challenges include securing of equipment financing to fund the deployment of more units; management of a portfolio of spread out rural projects, and too low energy consumption by customers to achieve our business case. Solve could help to find (impact) investors, help us to define a local management structure and give insight into patterns in growth of energy demand.