Electrifying Rural Development in Africa: displacing low-productivity manual labour activities and fossil-fuel generators in off-grid communities via a novel modular inverter design.

非洲农村发展电气化：通过新型模块化逆变器设计取代离网社区的低生产率体力劳动活动和化石燃料发电机。

• 批准号: 10043594
• 金额: $ 27.38万
• 依托单位: MOBILE POWER LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Feasibility Studies
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10043594
• 关键词: Electrifying; Rural; Development; Africa; displacing

Approximately 1 billion people in Africa do not have reliable access to the electricity grid. The only option to access electricity is through fossil-fuel generators. However, the majority of women farmers are not able to afford generators and so are trapped in being reliant on manual labour, which limits productivity and therefore income.Mobile Power supplies affordable, clean power to poor households and enterprises in off-grid communities across Africa using a pay-as-you-go smart battery rental system.This feasibility project builds on previous Energy Catalyst Projects by focusing on a new product - a modular inverter - that complements the MOPO Batteries and enables off-grid communities to use AC appliances that are powered by affordable, clean energy, without any upfront costs.This project will create a new collaboration between Mobile Power and Dr Krijn Peters from Swansea University who has been researching in Sierra Leone and Liberia for 25 years. He studied the impact of the spread of motorcycle taxis(okadas) that enabled women farmers to begin to sell crops at local markets, facilitating the transition from semi-subsistence farming to cash crop production. Mobile Power's EC7 project was aimed at electrifying this okada revolution using the MOPOMax Battery and solar swapping stations to power electric-motorcycles and expand their reach, into areas where fuel is expensive or not available.ADDITIONALITY: This EC9 project will test the feasibility of a low-cost inverter that would enable the MOPOMax Battery to replace fossil-fuel generators in the Battery's 'Second Life' once it no longer can be used for e-mobility. Our hypothesis is that not only could the MOPOMax Batteries + Inverter undercut generators in cost, but they could also help the women farmers to increase their income by replacing some of the low-productivity/manual agricultural processing activities with mechanised ones. This is due to Mobile Power's pay-per-use model where the MOPO Battery and Inverter will be rented out whenever the women need the electricity. This fits with the irregular and infrequent patterns of energy use that rural farmers need for pumping, milling and refrigeration, depending on seasonal harvests. This irregular demand creates a barrier for women to purchase a generator and inverter, which are both too expensive if only needed for certain weeks of the year. In comparison, a women farmer can come to a MOPO Hub and rent a MOPO Battery and Inverter whenever she needs it, with no deposit, no credit check or fixed payment structure.

非洲约有 10 亿人无法可靠地接入电网。获得电力的唯一选择是通过化石燃料发电机。然而，大多数女性农民买不起发电机，因此陷入对体力劳动的依赖，这限制了生产力和收入。移动电源为非洲各地离网社区的贫困家庭和企业提供负担得起的清洁电力使用即用即付的智能电池租赁系统。该可行性项目建立在之前的 Energy Catalyst 项目的基础上，重点关注一种新产品——模块化逆变器——该产品补充了 MOPO 电池，并使离网社区能够使用交流电器，由以下设备供电负担得起的清洁能源，无需任何前期成本。该项目将在 Mobile Power 和斯旺西大学的 Krijn Peters 博士之间建立新的合作关系，后者已在塞拉利昂和利比里亚进行了 25 年的研究。他研究了摩托车出租车（okadas）普及的影响，摩托车出租车使女性农民能够开始在当地市场出售农作物，促进从半自给农业向经济作物生产的转变。 Mobile Power 的 EC7 项目旨在通过使用 MOPOMax 电池和太阳能换电站为电动摩托车提供动力，推动冈田革命的电气化，并将其覆盖范围扩大到燃料昂贵或无法获得的地区。附加性：该 EC9 项目将测试低成本逆变器将使 MOPOMax 电池能够在电池的“第二次生命”中取代化石燃料发电机，一旦它不再可用于电动汽车。我们的假设是，MOPOMax 电池 + 逆变器不仅可以降低发电机的成本，而且还可以通过用机械化活动取代一些低生产率/手动农业加工活动来帮助女农民增加收入。这是由于移动电源的按使用付费模式，只要女性需要用电，MOPO 电池和逆变器就会被出租。这符合农村农民根据季节收成进行抽水、碾磨和制冷所需的不规则和不频繁的能源使用模式。这种不规则的需求给女性购买发电机和逆变器造成了障碍，如果只在一年中的某些星期需要，这两种产品都太昂贵。相比之下，女性农民可以在需要时来到 MOPO Hub 租用 MOPO 电池和逆变器，无需押金、无需信用检查或固定付款结构。