Towns beyond the lines
Solar mini-grids for towns the lines forgot.
Where the national lines have not reached, we build a small grid of our own: solar panels, batteries, a backup generator for long rains and prepaid meters for every home and shop.
How it works
A grid the size of a town
Solar by day
A field of panels sized for the town, usually 1 to 5 MW.
Batteries by night
Enough storage for the evening peak and most of the night.
A backup engine
A small gas engine for weeks of heavy cloud, used less than 5% of the time.
Prepaid meters
Every customer buys units the same way as in Ibadan.
Running now
Our mini-grids
| Town | Solar | Battery | Customers | Hours a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanlate | 3.2 MW | 6 MWh | 5,600 | 20.7 |
| Igbo-Ora | 3.4 MW | 6.5 MWh | 5,900 | 20.5 |
| Eruwa | 4.1 MW | 7.5 MWh | 7,200 | 21.0 |
For businesses
What a mini-grid changes
In Eruwa, cassava processors used to grind only when they could buy diesel. On the mini-grid they grind every day, and two cold rooms now keep fish and vegetables for the market.
Questions
About mini-grids
Is mini-grid power more expensive?
The example rate is ₦185 per kWh, close to Band A, because solar fuel is free once the panels are paid for.
What if the national grid arrives?
We connect the mini-grid to it. The town then has two sources instead of one.
Next step
Is your town off the grid?
We run a feasibility study with the community before anything is built.