Power
to the People
Renewable Energy for Underserved
Communities
Image Credits: blueEnergy
Conference Sponsor:
Networking Reception Sponsor:
CAREER CENTER
1
Manoj Sinha
Co-founder, Husk Power Systems
April 22nd, 2010
Center for Science, Technology, and Society
Power to Empower
COVER
Husk Power Systems
(HPS)
Manoj Sinha
4/9/2015
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Mission
Husk Power Systems provides reliable renewable affordable
electricity that wows the world – customers by our
exemplary service and operational excellence, employees
by personal growth and empowerment, and our
shareholders through profitability, social impact, and
environmental sustainability
Our target is to install 2,000+ plants in 5 years
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Choices Considered
Husk Power looked at the options ...
$0.25/kWh
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$0.50/kWh
Source: Mini-Grid Report, WorldBank 2007
$0.25/kWh
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Husk Power Systems discovers easy to operate model
Husk Power looked at the options … then made our own.
HPS Installation Cost < $1000 per kW
Operational Cost is < $0.10/kWh
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Rice Husk – a Huge Biomass Energy Source
40 Million Metric Tons
Enough to Light 145K Villages
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Village
Paddy
Paddy
Irrigation Pump
Stored Husk
To Industry
HPS Plant
To Irrigation
Rice Mill
Home Clusters
Water Boiling
Village
Husk
Ash
Filters
Gasifier
Generator
Village
Pre-paid Meter
CO2
Broker
Village
Village
RHA: Rice Husk Ash
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HPS
RHA
Refinery
Cement
Plant
Revenue
RHA
Powering rural India one at a time
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In last 2 years, HPS has consistently delivered on its promises and beaten
internal targets
•
Completed installation of 23 power plants and developed capabilities to install at a rate of
one power plant/week
•
Recruited, trained and deployed 20 technical operators in the last 6 months
•
Hired four full time senior managers and one fellow from premier institutes in India (IITs and
ISB) and USA (UT, Austin and Wharton)
•
Completed formation of company structure by opening a Mauritius office and completing
paper works
•
Closed $1.3M of pre-Series A financing from a syndicate of four investors (Acumen Fund,
Bamboo Finance, LGT and DFJ/Cisco)
•
Completed due diligence required to get additional ~$550K of grant from Shell Foundation to
implement Health, Safety and Environmental best practices
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Post closing of funding round, HPS is taking measures to significantly improve operations
of existing and newly installed plants
Initiatives Taken
1. Set company wide operations’ metrics to
improve the uptime for all the power plants
2. Documented more than 80% of all the current
operating processes
3. Invested resources and capital to accelerate
results driven R&D efforts
4. Initiated collaboration with suppliers to further
reduce equipment cost and maintain leadership
in installation cost/kW
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Implications
1. Monitoring plants continually followed by
auditing process make operators and
managers aware of their responsibilities
2. Documentation reduces variations of operating
and maintenance process from plant to plant
3. Collaboration with IDEO resulted in developing
a very low cost pre-paid meter system that will
further reduce the theft rate
4. Working closely with suppliers help in further
reducing the cost and improving the quality of
equipments
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The company is currently exploring multiple avenues to monetize alternate revenue streams
New Business Development Activities
1. Piloting a project with Airtel to become cell
phone towers’ energy provider in rural areas
Long Term Impact
1. Provides a long term stable source of revenue
and may give HPS an opportunity to become
Airtel’s channel partner to distribute its products
2. Partnering with Havells, an appliance company
3. Exploring must-have product development
options with RHC (HPS’s waste)
4. Collaborating with established corporations
both in India and USA to explore development
of new products/services with a focus on rural
areas
2. Brings reliable and efficient CFLs at customers’
door-step and provide 10-20% cost advantage
to beneficiaries
3. Develop new products such as Incense sticks
(also called agarbatti) etc. that can be
immediately monetized
4. Brainstorm sessions indicate HPS becoming a
conduit to reliable rural demographics data for
CPG companies in addition to developing local
must-have products and services
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HPS Scaling Model
4-6 plants/wk
3 plants/wk
1 plant/wk
10 plants
7 plants
2 plants
$97K
BizPlan
$550K
Shell
Foundation
MNRE
2008
1H 2009
1 plant
$70K
2007
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$5,500K
Series A
$1,100K
Seed Fin
$1,000K
Debt Fin
$3,200K
Debt Fin
$4,000K
Debt Fin
2H 2009
2010
2011
2012
Within “home” state
Replicate other regions
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Husk Power Systems – Impact Value Chain
INPUTS
ACTIVITIES
OUTPUTS
• Renewable Energy
• Flexible Payments
• Buying local waste
• Capacity Building
• µEnterprise Dev
• Local Employment
• # HH Lighted
• Reduced CO2
• Inc Hours for Biz
OUTCOMES
• 40% Cash Savings
• Cash Surplus
• Education
• 1.5M people impacted (320,000 HH)
• 2,160 Jobs created in rural India
• 108,000 tons of CO2 saved per year
• $20 Savings/HH/Year = $6.4M / Year
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This is not just about money …
“India got independence from England 60 years ago,
but this village got its independence today.”
- Master RamBalak Ji (in 2007)
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Power
to the People
Renewable Energy for Underserved
Communities
Image Credits: blueEnergy
Conference Sponsor:
Networking Reception Sponsor:
CAREER CENTER
16