Energy

Our innovation ColdHubs addresses the problem of food spoilage due to a lack of reliable cold storage at key points within the food supply chain. Food spoilage is caused by ambient temperature and relative humidity which facilitates fungal and bacteria decay. The problem is exacerbated by the absence of suitable on-farm and in-market cold storage facilities and unreliable electricity supply. Spoilage reduces the availability of safe, nutritious, and healthy food available for human consumption.

In DRC there are 100+ armed groups, 5m IDPs and refugees, and an Ebola outbreak claiming 1600+ lives and 15,000 suspected cases of measles. Congo’s chronic lack of accessible, reliable and affordable electricity is a consequence and symptom of Congo's complex context of fragility and insecurity. The humanitarian ecosystem, households, and businesses in Congo are all affected by unmet, irregular, and insufficient energy supply and service.

Currently only 16% of the Congo has access to on grid electricity. Towns and health clinics without energy use generators or household solar systems or do without, depending on what they can afford. The proposed model provides a solution for addressing energy needs in marginalized rural conflict zones by changing the financing and management model to increase health center and community energy access.

Our innovation addresses the lack of energy access in South Sudan by quickly and affordably meeting the energy needs of communities across the country. The instability of South Sudan has hindered investment in energy infrastructure, stifling economic development, and increasing poverty. As of 2020, only the capital Juba had access to grid power (1% of the population), while the rest of the country has no access. As a result, only costly energy sources such as diesel gensets are available to meet energy needs.

Access to information is extremely limited in South Sudan, due to lack of energy infrastructure and of access to face-to-face information for population that have been displaced due to conflict to hard-to-reach areas. About 13,565 South Sudanese individuals are displaced by conflict in Mundri West and 13,725 in Mundri East Counties (IOM DTM, Sept 2020), majority of whom are hiding in the bushes and/or are cut off from communications with other areas.

In South Sudan, over 99% of households utilize traditional charcoal and wood fuels for cooking and the vast majority of cooking is on indoor unvented and unimproved cookstoves or over open flames. This results in high levels of household air pollution (HAP), which can lead to serious respiratory illness and death, especially for women and young children (over 4400 HAP related deaths of children under 5 in South Sudan in 2016).

Our project addresses the lack of clean, affordable and sustainable energy sources for the over 2 million people in refugee settlements and host communities in Uganda, while increasing refugee and host households incomes by 940 CAD annually and reducing the need of subsidies by the UNHCR. Low income and lack of clean and affordable energy sources disproportionately affect women and children, who form up to 87% of refugees, while deforestation from firewood affects host communities.

The development of off-grid power systems for the population in crisis areas is usually done via generators, which is expensive to operate and generates many dependencies, for example on fossil fuels or technicians with specialist knowledge. Although solar battery systems offer more independence, they are either less powerful or more complex in design, less flexible and difficult to expand. Power-Blox addresses these disadvantages of solar battery systems and offers an innovative alternative.

Our project aims to increase the energy efficiency and improve the living conditions of households who lack access to electricity by providing efficient and environmentally-friendly lamps.

Innovative Solar Home System Technology Development For The Communities Without Electricity