ITU Workshop on
“ICT Innovations in Emerging Economies”
(Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014)
BuffaloGrid
Power as service to the off-grid world
Daniel Becerra,
Managing Director, BuffaloGrid,
daniel@buffalogrid.org
Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014
The pain
1.6billion people without access to
power.
For 2014, it is estimated that
750million will have a mobile phone.
Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014
2
The pain
How do they charge it?
They pay the most expensive electricity
in the planet
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3
Off grid power – where does it come
from?
USD12-17 billion – Spent in Africa on
Kerosene
USD80-100 million – Spent in Solar panels
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4
Solar irradiance
Africa has the biggest solar irradiance in the
world!
So why only 1% of off-grid power is created by
solar?
Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014
5
Lack of faith in solar
We are facing a very price sensitive
market.
Dozens of companies are trying to sell
their products and while power demand is
growing their sales are dropping.
People are just not buying them – In their
minds solar panels are products that cost
a lot and break after a few months.
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Our solution
We believe people need access to power –
No ownership of inefficient power
solutions.
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Lowering cost barrier to zero
We provide our units for free to trusted
entrepreneurs and run the service of
providing electricity
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8
Cashless transactions
The end user pays for electricity by
sending a text message – No cash
involved at any point
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Data collection
Paying by SMS allow us to obtain data
from our clients.
This data can easily convert into cheaper
or free power to our end user and
information for our partners.
Example: question by text – answer
entitles to a free power charge.
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10
Mobile Network Operators (MNO)
When off grid user have access to power,
usage increases between 10-20%
This means business opportunities of more
than 2 Billion USD for MNOs in Africa a
year
Helping to provide power could be a very
good business for MNOs
With our data collection we know which
MNO each of our client use – so we can
offer measurable promotions.
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11
Challenges
Scale – 150-200 million off grid mobile
phone users in Africa – How can we reach
them all?
UN Millennium goals – Universal access to
electricity by 2030 – That is 16 years from
now. 1.6 billion people without power –
160million people you need to reach every
year! – keeping a linear equation.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
Decentralized power solutions is key.
Business over charity – Follow MNOs
example
Provide infrastructure and run a service
Improve service everyday – Today
BuffaloGrid provides power tomorrow it
will provide power and internet. We will
become a Launchpad for many other
services.
Tunis, Tunisia, 28 January 2014
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