Solar sells: Imperial students help Rwandan villagers set up energy business

Students install ‘solar kiosk’ technology in remote village - News

Thursday 15 July 2009
By Colin Smith

Students will bring renewable power to people living in a remote African village, thanks to an Imperial College London volunteer initiative.

Second and third year undergraduates from Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering have designed a ‘Solar Kiosk’ that they will install in the remote village of Minazi, Rwanda over a 5 week period this Autumn. This will be the first time that locals will have access to technology that will provide them with a reliable source of cheap renewable energy.

The ‘solar kiosk’ consists of a small hut with solar panels on its roof to produce electricity, which is stored in batteries. A villager will be appointed to run the kiosk as a business where locals can hire and take home batteries so that they can power their lights, radios and charge their mobile phones, which are an important means of communicating in the country. When the hired battery is depleted, people can exchange it for a freshly charged one to re-use again.

Rwanda’s estimated population of 10 million people has the worst per capita electricity supply in the world and relies on hydro electricity to intermittently supply some parts of the country. However, villages such as Minazi do not get electricity because they are so remote. Instead, the villagers rely on kerosene as fuel for cooking and lighting, which is very expensive to buy and pollutes the air in their houses. The students say their ‘Solar Kiosk’ will provide a source of cheap power for villagers and enough surplus energy to power other infrastructure projects such as a communal water pump.

Villagers in Minazi, Rwanda.

“Minazi is in a mountainous part of the country and there was absolutely no way that a reliable power supply was ever going to reach it,” says Imperial undergraduate Matthew Dayton, one of the volunteers. “By supplying renewable energy to the village, we hope to reduce their dependence on kerosene, decrease air pollution in homes and promote new types of commerce in the area.”

The students have purchased the solar powered technology via various fund raising initiatives that they have carried out. They have also developed some of the technology themselves including ‘low voltage disconnect switch’ technology, which is fitted to each battery to ensure that solar kiosk customers don’t find inventive ways of completely draining the power from the batteries, which damages them.

The Imperial students have enlisted the help of students from Rwanda’s major technical institute called the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). The KIST students are already in Minazi helping with the construction of the Solar Kiosk building. The Imperial team members will arrive in September to complete the project by installing the solar panels. They also plan to show KIST students how the technology works, in an effort to build up local expertise in renewable energy.

Imperial undergraduate volunteer team member, Ndubuisi Kejeh says: “We hope that projects such as ours will help the Rwandan Government see the benefits that clean renewable energy could bring to the country. We know that the Government is very keen to see projects like ours succeed. If this project proves a success we hope to roll it out to other communities in the country.”

The team of Imperial volunteers call themselves e.quinox. They consist of third year undergraduates Mohammad Mansoor Hamayun, Laurent Van Houcke, Thomas Luth, Matthew Dayton, Chris Baker-Brian, Alex Rybka, Alexander Mclaren and Ndubuisi Kejeh as well as second year undergraduate Christopher Hopper.

In June, the students were recognised for their efforts by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers with the inaugural ‘Presidents’ Change the World award. The prize included $1,000 and the title of Outstanding Student Humanitarian Project for 2009.

Sir Roy Anderson, Rector of Imperial College London, congratulated the e.quinox team on their prize, saying:

"We can all look at situations and think that something should be done, but it takes a special kind of spirit to be the one who stands up and makes a difference. Here at Imperial, we are enormously proud of our can-do, globally-aware students, and the imaginative ways they find to put their expertise in science, technology, medicine and business to great practical use. Though the challenges of the twenty first century are significant, I cannot help but feel positive about the future when I see this dedication to making the world a better place amongst the next generation. The congratulations of all at Imperial go to the e.quinox team on this well-deserved award."