SteamaCo, a UK-based company, offers advanced smart metering across Africa and Asia. The company says its cloud-based solution is integral to getting energy to those who don’t have access. Patrick Kingsland asks CEO and co-founder Harrison Leaf about how the technology works.

Young Sustainability Executive of the Year

Emily Moder, SteamaCo

In another highly impressive category, Emily Moder was highlighted by the judges for the impact she has had as COO of smart metering specialist SteamaCo and her commitment to bringing clean, affordable, and transformational utility services to off-grid communities across the developing world.

Manchester has celebrated the best of its young business talent at a glamorous awards ceremony.

Accountant of the Year: Tom Parkinson, SteamaCo

Cisco and Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP) announced today the opening of Mi-IDEA, a post-accelerator based in Manchester. It aims to help tech startups flourish and encourage innovation between businesses, academia and the government.

In Kenya, businesses are looking to broaden access to energy by fusing micro grid technology with the significant uptake of mobile phone payment systems.

Another company with abundant potential is Kenya's SteamaCo, which is applying smart technology to the challenge of rural electrification through the creation of microgrids, offering a low-cost solution for unconnected households. With just 19% of Kenyans connected to the grid the potential market is vast.

An electricity grid for the whole village. How it works: Micro-grids are nothing new. The new part is that Steamaco's technology automates the regulation of electricity.

The GCT100 Ones to Watch list seeks to highlight a group of up and companies that are catching the eye of leading investors and corporates in the market. The companies made the top 250 in this year’s Global Cleantech 100 program and carry pockets of strong support among the GCT100’s expert panel, albeit they did not have quite enough market support to make the 8th edition of the Global Cleantech 100 list itself (which will be published on January 23, 2017). As such, these companies represent this year’s Ones to Watch. “The Global Cleantech 100 program is our annual in-depth research exercise to identify the innovation companies leading players in the market are most excited by right now”, said Richard Youngman, CEO, CTG, “By the nature of the list, the Ones to Watch truly represent the next cadre of exciting disruptive companies.”

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.

Steama.co is a finalist in the 2016 Postcode Lottery Green Challenge.

James Gadsby Peet, Director of Digital with our long-standing friends William Joseph, has written a brilliant account of the 2016 Ashden International Conference which focused on how to move up the energy ladder in an off-grid world. Here, he takes us through some key themes of the day.

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.