The people of Thar Desert have little to no electricity access. Those that have access, use diesel polluting generators to produce this electricity, while fuel supply is unreliable and intermittent. The Thar is the most populous desert in the world, with approximately 16.6m people living there. Tharis are far behind the Pakistani average on economic skills. They rely predominantly on agriculture/livestock and "Thari crafts" (ornate embroidered/sewn garments such as quilts and cushions) to survive. The Thari women who make these crafts are extremely hardworking and talented, spirited and committed. Empowering women can change the destiny of Tharparkari people. However, the unavailability of electricity needed to power productivity enhancing stitching/sewing machines, means these women must make every stitch painstakingly by hand. As such, garment making is incredibly slow, laborious, and they are unable to leverage their skills to benefit their families and the wider village community.
By the end of 2026, SolarERA systems will be ready to provide a unique electrification solution that will benefit these people by affording them access to off-grid electricity and in turn electric sewing/craft machines, and in doing so revolutionise their current economic situation. As a result, Thari-crafts can form the bedrock of the economic model that will provide microfinance institutions with the confidence to offer the initial investment to fund the SolarERA pico-grids. From this key initial electrification enabler, further downstream benefits can flow in relation to Health and Well-being, Education and Learning, Communication and Connectivity etc. Additionally, SolarERA will serve to preserve the age-old Thari crafts skills of these women, passed down by successive generations for centuries.
The benefits to project partners are clear, major growth in jobs (25-UK, 125-PAK) and economic activity (£22.5million in revenues) by 2031\. Kunwaa Foundation will be able to achieve its aim of improving the lives of the Thar people more easily and faster. SALATEEN will become a leader in the supply and installation of pico-grids across Pakistan and neighbouring countries. Zhyphen will see a significant boost in exports of critical technology for the enablement of low-cost off-grid solar solutions, enhancing it and Brunel-University-London's reputation as leaders in this area
In developed countries across the globe, we take reliable energy access for granted. Although progress on energy access is being made in developing regions, 770m people worldwide are still living without access to modern energy services \[World Bank 2020\], including 600m in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Grid connection and solar PV systems have improved energy access for Sub-Saharan African urban populations, with 74% now benefiting from electricity access. However, in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, only 26% of the population have access to electricity \[WEO2019 database, IEA 2020\]. These rural areas are deprived of clean, reliable, and cost-effective energy to supply domestic, commercial and community buildings. This leads to a reliance on biomass fuels (creating life-threatening health hazards and decimating ecosystems) or expensive, polluting diesel plants \[Oxfam, 2020\].
Stand-alone systems and clean mini grids have been identified as a solution, with IEA predicting they will make up 70% of rural connections by 2030 \[ADGB, 2020\].
In this project, Sun Harvester will work with Kenyan partners, Hope Bright Future Centre (local agent, NGO Hope for the Nations) to design, develop and field test an affordable community mini-grid solution, powered by solar panels. Working directly with local communities, the partners will address all the gender and social inclusion aspects related to design and end-user needs.
We will further develop our stand-alone Instant Grid (IG) modular energy storage technology for use in a mini-grid. Our mini-grid solution will be scalable, so we can achieve enough power supply capacity to supply entire communities. We will replace diesel generator back-up with hydrogen fuel cell technology to deliver a 100% renewable mini-grid solution. Elimination of diesel brings extensive, environmental, fuel saving, security of supply and health benefits. For example, carbon dioxide currently emitted by generators in Sub-Saharan Africa is equivalent to 22m passenger vehicles on the road. \[The Dirty Footprint of the Broken Grid, World Bank 2019\].
Sun Harvester's solution will reduce mini-grid Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) from $0.39/kWh \[Irena, 2020\] to $0.24/kWh. Cost savings are achievable through: easy installation, replacement of individual battery cells and battery monitoring/management for increased lifetime. Furthermore, our modular design allows correct sizing of mini-grid installations, reducing entry level CAPEX costs from c.$100k to $10k.
Our solution will be economically viable and specifically designed for deployment in remote, rural areas of Kenya, and sub-Saharan Africa. This will unlock affordable, secure, energy access for all, bringing benefits to sub-Saharan Africa's most at-risk and impoverished communities.
The grid-forming Zhyphen EVolution Charging Hub (ZEVCH) from Sun Harvester is a flexible, innovative solution that promotes the uptake of low-carbon transportation in rural areas that currently experience grid constraints. Instead of time-intensive and costly grid infrastructure reinforcements, the ZEVCH design enables rural EV charging through a modular, easy to install design that can be scaled up to meet future demand. This project includes a research partnership with the University of Strathclyde's Power Network Demonstration Centre (PNDC), which will lead to key design and operations insights that will accelerate commercialisation of this technology. This will complement and inform, a 4-month field trial of the ZEVCH solution on a rural recreational destination in Northern Ireland. The public demonstration of the ZEVCH technology will provide real-world data to corroborate the PNDC findings, realise benefits for local residents and tourists alike while improving the ZEVCH equipment design and supporting roll-out of the solution.
In sub-Saharan Africa, >600 million people lack access to electricity and millions are connected to an unreliable grid. Lack of energy security, especially in poorer parts of Africa, leads to reliance on biomass fuels and expensive diesel generators and diesel plants. Energy storage technologies are a potential game-changer for widespread adoption of renewable energy throughout Africa. Modern energy storage technologies manage renewable power intermittency, demand response services, and dispatch stable, clean, and sustainable power into the local/national grid system. However, cost, flexibility and reliability are significant barriers preventing widespread adoption. Sun Harvester are developing a modular battery energy storage system, the “PowaBlock,” purpose-built for use in remote communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The technology is exceptionally robust, requires no technical expertise to use and its modular nature enables users to combine and disconnect multiple units according to their needs. The proposed project consists of a 12-month technical feasibility study examining potential application of the PowaBlock in Nigeria.