NextEnergy Foundation is pleased to announce a new partnership with VoltaView. VoltaView is a collaboration between Fraunhofer HHI and the Clausthal University of Technology in Germany.

NextEnergy Foundation is fully funding the assembly, transportation and installation of a Mini-Grid-25 system in the Tweyambe Secondary and High School, Tanzania. The Mini-Grid-25 is a container-based solar and battery powered charging station which has been constructed using 2^nd life components of solar panels and batteries. It will generate clean energy and drinking water for 15 years: 10,000kWh electricity per year and 2,000 litres drinking water per day.

The beneficiaries include 250 students at the school and 500 neighbouring inhabitants. The latter will also be reached with 10 mobile power banks which are part of the system.

VoltaView is working with the school’s Physics teacher to develop a curriculum to educate the students on the system’s operation so that they can maintain it themselves and promote the uptake of the technology and other solar-enabled technologies in the wider community. This will aid the project’s social and environmental sustainability in the long-term and contribute to its scalability.

The system will be shipped from Germany in July and a further update will be provided when it reaches Tanzania. Some photographs of the Mini-Grid-25 system being developed and tested are above.

January 2023 Update: The Mini-Grid-25 arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in November and was expected to be installed at the Tweyambe School by the end of 2022. However, several complications were encountered owing to local bureaucracy which delayed the release of the system from local authorities to VoltaView, as well as logistical challenges with the trucking company contracted to transport the Mini-Grid-25 from Dar es Salaam to the school.

Fortunately, the system has now reached its final destination and the photographs above demonstrate that all materials stored in the container arrived safely. VoltaView will be returning to Tanzania to teach a local company to install the system and train a local engineer in its operation and maintenance in the coming weeks.

March 2023 – Project Completion: The system is now installed and fully functioning. Impacts of the project are below:

• 9m litres potable water generated over the system’s lifetime;
• 216,000 CO2 emissions avoided over the system’s lifetime;
• 900kg NO2 emissions avoided over the system’s lifetime;
• < 750 students, staff and community members with first-time access to clean energy;
• 2 teachers and 3 students trained in the operation and maintenance of the system;
• Annual savings > 30% on the school’s expenses