{"id":556,"date":"2014-02-06T07:34:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T11:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/?p=556"},"modified":"2014-02-06T07:34:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T11:34:28","slug":"persistent-energy-ghana-brings-solar-need-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/2014\/02\/06\/persistent-energy-ghana-brings-solar-need-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Persistent Energy Ghana Brings Solar to Those Who Need Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally posted on\u00a0Triple Pundit\u00a0<\/a>on December 30th, 2013\u00a0By Justine Porter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Persistent Energy\u00a0Ghana (PEG)<\/a>\u00a0is leading the movement to bring green energy, installing solar-powered micro-grids for the one million Ghanaian households that earn between $1 and $6 a day.<\/p>\n

PEG, a Ghanaian energy services company that\u00a0launched last year<\/a>, hopes to help under-electrified regions leap-frog directly from\u00a0kerosene<\/a>\u00a0to solar in the same way that Ghana skipped over the installation of telephone lines thanks to\u00a0the adoption of cell phones<\/a>. \u201cThese are villages that have never had access to power before,\u201d says Hugh Whalan, CEO of PEG. \u201cWe are taking these consumers from kerosene and candles all the way to plentiful, clean electricity. It\u2019s exciting. The impact on these communities will be immense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homes in participating villages are wired to a common bank of lithium-ion batteries, which are charged by an array of ground-mounted \"1486783_10151755437876176_242887367_n-484x650\"<\/a>photovoltaic panels. Each household on the micro-grid receives a smart meter, which automatically shuts off once the customer runs out of credit. Customers can then add as much or as little credit as they can afford to their account via a local agent with a cell phone.<\/p>\n

Persistent Energy has funded the installation of several micro-grids in Tanzania. Nate Heller, Chief Operating Officer in Ghana, enjoyed launching Persistent Energy\u2019s first system in West Africa. \u201cWe went live in December 2013,\u201d said Heller, who first came to Africa as a member of the Peace Corps and later graduated with an MBA from Yale. \u201cThe first installations gave three villages with a minimum of one hundred homes each their own grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the first three installations are in the Eastern region of the Ghana, PEG plans to expand into the island communities in the Volta Region and then into the Northern Region. Whalan and Heller intend to work with their staff, tweak their model, and then install additional grids in 50 villages, for a total of 5,000 households, by 2014. If all goes well, there\u2019s potential to have 300 Ghanaian villages\u2013a total of 30,000 households\u2013electrified and running on micro-grids by 2015.<\/p>\n

Beyond powering lights, PEG\u2019s systems are capable of running radios, charging phones, and powering other basic items. \u201cWe even have a few customers in Tanzania with TVs in their homes,\u201d explained Tom George of Persistent\u2019s Finance Department. \u201cIn a village where electricity was never available, it\u2019s incredible to power a TV. We\u2019re hoping to do more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Access to the evening news aside, extra hours of bright light can mean more working hours and higher income. Participating families will be able to charge phones at home, saving hours of travel time into town for a recharge. And unlike kerosene, electric power has significantly lower fire risks. Children who have access to light after sundown typically\u00a0score better in school<\/a>, not only because they have more hours to do homework and better quality light, but because they avoid the negative health impacts of smoke inhalation on young lungs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand is there,\u201d said George Yeboah, Customer Experience Manager for PEG. \u201cThere are hundreds of millions of people across Africa who don\u2019t have energy, want it, and are willing to pay for it. They pay a ton for kerosene and they want an alternative. This is a huge market opportunity for Persistent Energy.\u201d The cost of belonging to a micro-grid is comparable to that of buying kerosene or batteries. The average Ghanaian household pays between $6 and $17 a month for electricity,\u00a0a cost which is on the rise<\/a>. The average household that connects to the micro-grid will pay as little as forty cents per day for energy that is far cleaner and much more reliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system takes the pressure of borrowing a huge amount of money off the individual,\u201d explained Heller. \u201cBecause the cost of the system is spread out over one hundred or more homes over the course of two years, the cost is less intimidating and more manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market is primed for growth\u201d Yeboah summarized. \u201cRight now there are a few other companies doing this kind of work in Africa, but in five years, there will be hundreds. We hope to execute quickly enough that we become the leader in the West Africa, but whether or not that\u2019s the case, in ten years when companies like ours are commonplace, we\u2019ll be able to say that we helped pioneer the business model that brought light to people who needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road to achieve what we aim to will be tough,\u2019 says Heller, \u2018but we are looking forward to these challenges. We\u2019re pumped\u2019.<\/p>\n

Justine Porter<\/strong><\/em>
\nCurrently works as the Hiring Manager for Della, a social-enterprise in the Volta Region of Ghana that creates sustainable employment and educational opportunities for women through fair-trade fashion. Prior to that, she worked as the Operations and Programs Manager of Della\u2019s Ghana production center. Previous professional experience includes implementing neighborhood revitalization programs as the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator at Habitat for Humanity of Dutchess County. She spent time teaching English on R\u00e9union Island in Indian Ocean and worked as the Grassroots Coordinator for Falling Whistles, a social-justice campaign dedicated to empowering war-affected women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Justine received a B.A. in International Relations and French Language from the State University of New York at Geneseo. Her primary interest in sustainable business is in its application to social entrepreneurship and development projects among underprivileged communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally posted on\u00a0Triple Pundit\u00a0on December 30th, 2013\u00a0By Justine Porter Persistent Energy\u00a0Ghana (PEG)\u00a0is leading the movement to bring green energy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}