Vulcan Impact Investing Makes its Mark with Rural Kenya Solar Mini-grids

Off-Grid Solar Microgrids: Reaching Communities that Utilities Haven’t

An estimated 620 million of the more than 2 billion people around the world who lack access to reliable sources of electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa, many of them eking out an existence from smallholder farms. Multilateral development agencies, governments and utilities have been considering and attempting to roll out public grid infrastructure for them for decades with little success.

SteamaCo and BURN among the winners of the 2015 Ashden Award

Recognising their outstanding role in bringing smart and energy efficient technologies to rural areas, the two companies won awards, along with nine other pioneering sustainable energy organisations, at a prestigious ceremony in London on 11 June 2015.

The International Gold Award and Ashden Award for Business Innovation went to SteamaCo, a Nairobi-based company that has developed a system to manage the monitoring, control and payments of mini grids remotely, overcoming one of the key barriers to making micro-grids commercially feasible and sustainable.

SteamaCo: smart energy management for rural Africa

Steama.co is the market leader in technology for managing off-grid renewable energy networks in emerging markets, and it is helping utilities and customers communicate and link up in rural Africa. The continent is home to millions of people who go without electricity every day, and Steama.co is helping to change that with more distributed energy generation and data analytics.

Phones4Power

Kenya-based business SteamaCo is harnessing the power of mobile to bring affordable electricity access to rural, off-grid communities. SteamaCo’s smart technology allows solar micro-grid owners to monitor their performance remotely and capture consumer payments via mobile money platforms, thereby overcoming the traditional challenges of keeping grids working reliably and profitably.

2015 Ashden International Award winners

SteamaCo is unlocking one of the key barriers to making micro-grids investable

International Gold Award and Ashden Award for Business Innovation, supported by Citi

Lake Victoria’s fishing villages and other rural communities in Kenya are benefiting from clean light and power for the first time, thanks to renewable energy micro-grids. Using the natural energy of the sun, they work like mini power stations for each village, supplying enough energy to run small businesses, as well as power TVs, radios and bright lights in the home.