The Containers changing African Villages

How often does it happen that foreign governments or organizations have come to Africa and legitimately wanting to improve lives? Often.

But how man times did they end up wasting millions of Euros worth of technology that just wasn't in line with the needs of those it was supposed to help? Unfortunately, statistics like the one from the World Health Organisation, stating that in Sub-Saharan Africa a large proportion (up to 70%) of medical equipment is not used due to mismanagement of the technology acquisition process, lacking user-training and missing technological support, are the harsh reality of a mismatch between good intentions and poor implementation of development aid.

As Morgan Simon, an impact investing leader wrote, the best social impact can only be achieved if you first talk to the people affected by the project, to see what is actually going to make a difference. That is why today's story is about Africa GreenTec, a social venture from Germany which brings solar energy to Sub-Saharan Africa (more precisely, to Mali and Niger, and soon Senegal). The innovations they bring there are based on constant interaction with locals, and of course helped by the fact that co-founder Aida Schreiber is from Mali herself and speaks many of the local languages.

She, together with husband and co-founder Torsten Schreiber, always spent about half of the year in Mali and Niger in the villages (pre-Covid) and was a lot in contact with national and regional politicians. This enabled them to understand both the strategies for electrification and development for those countries, as well as the villagers' needs. Another part of the sustainable solution AGT provides is that they train two electricians per village to take care of the maintenance of the facilities, translating into a longer lifespan for the solar energy facilities. Thus, not only a service but also jobs are created. If you are interested in how Africa Greentec is not only bringing clean energy into the Global South, but also empowers people to be more in charge of their resources, we will soon publish an impact investing article on this venture.

Founders Aida and Torsten Schreiber in front of a Solartainer

But now back to Africa GreenTec and their sustainable innovation. AGT was founded in 2015 and its flagship innovation is the Solartainer. As can be guessed from the name, it is a container that produces, distributes and stores energy gained from solar power, which they understandably call the "most logical and cleanest energy source of Africa".

Here is a quick rundown on how the Solartainer works:

• When delivered, it can be built up (or rather, unpacked) and ready to function in 48 hours. This is especially great in cases of sudden changes in electricity needs.

• It has been designed to withstand sand storms, flooding and outside temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius, as well as transportation on dirt roads.

• Thanks to the built-in Lithium-Ion battery the container can provide energy also in the evening and during cloudy times.

• The Solartainer is also digitally connected to smart meters in every home. These enable digital billing, remote monitoring and remote maintenance. Additionally, being interconnected helps to realize the multi-level tariff system for the electricity billing which plays a key role in AGT's goal in providing electricity to as many people as possible. The extensive data analytics is also crucial for AGT's impact reporting, which is increasingly being measured in accordance to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Below you can see the heart of a villages' electricity system being transported on a truckbed:

What is the impact of this?

• Lucky for me, this question is answered right on their impact webpage. As with any impact investing project, the quantification of its social impact is just as important as that of its financial returns. To date, Africa Greentec has installed 22 containers and provided 25.000 people and over 400 small businesses with access to electricity, as well as saved over 2.000 tons of carbon emissions through its use of solar energy as opposed to fossil energy.

• More in detail, each Solartainer can provide 4.000 people, 40 (small/medium-sized) businesses and 10 community spaces with electricity.

• Africa Greentec however, does not stop at providing solutions for energy alone. The Solarcontainer can be expanded by adding a water treatment system (up to 2.000 litres per hour) and/or a satellite connection, both to be used for internet by locals and to maintain the container remotely.

What can you do?

• First and foremost, you can of course always share this post or even better, Africa GreenTec's content on social media, check out AGT's Impact Blog and Instagram.

• If you like, you can also check out their current crowd investing campaign, through which they aim to scale their business and of course, their impact.