Reliable electricity is scarcer than mobile technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. Quartz Africa thinks this has to do with the technical architecture. Wireless telecom vaulted into the future with 21st-century cellular towers and cheap handsets. While electricity lumps along with 19th century grids. Now an innovative start-up is proposing a new hypothesis to bring reliable energy to the final 1.2 billion people worldwide.
The New Hypothesis Adopted by Bboxx
Bboxx wants to deliver off-grid solar power to people in the third world. Its vision includes a new distributed model in areas with little to no infrastructure. In terms of this, customers lease affordable solar panels and batteries using pay as you go mobile plans.
Bboxx makes sure the new hypothesis works by being able to turn the system on and off remotely depending on payments. Taxi drivers can pay daily to charge their customers’ phones. Farmers and entrepreneurs can prepay months ahead if they have a bonanza season. Moreover, the system can accommodate any size user without having to string a single grid cable.
So How Much Does a Customer Pay for This?
A few dollars a month may power a flashlight, a radio, and a few light bulbs. While $80 every month could support a television, radio, laptop, and fridge. Bboxx also leases highly energy-efficient appliances to first-use consumers.
While this arrangement may appear quaint to some westerners blessed with abundant utilities, it sounds like a game changer for schools without grid electricity to power computer classrooms. Africa is caught in a paradigm where one step forward often precedes two steps back.
As the costs of solar technology plummets, it becomes more and more affordable to consumers and businesses in the third world. This new hypothesis seems to be saying that, if we can kick start the process it could travel far. Imagine how good it would be, if Africa stopped burning low grade coal and wood for cooking fires!
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