A Solar Social Enterprise for the Rural Community of Ghana. A Not for Profit Concept By Eric R Hawkins

Transcription

1 A Solar Social Enterprise for the Rural Community of Ghana A Not for Profit Concept By Eric R Hawkins

2 What is a Social Enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being this may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form (depending in which country the entity exists and the legal forms available) of a cooperative, mutual organization, a disregarded entity, a social business, a benefit corporation, a community interest company or a charity organization. They can also take more conventional structures. What differentiates social enterprises is that their social mission is as core to their success as any potential profit. Many commercial enterprises would consider themselves to have social objectives, but commitment to these objectives is motivated by the perception that such commitment will ultimately make the enterprise more financially valuable.

3 The top ten objectives of this NEW Solar Social Enterprise Concept 1. To bring together many like minded people that I have been communicating with through social media in Ghana since my visit in Only two person needs to be employed to begin with, with myself Eric Hawkins for the direction and supply side to establish a low cost assembly LED business including a premises for training/education about all types of lighting. (If there is government support) 3. Switching 26 million Ghanaian families and business owners to LED lighting could cut the countries electricity waste just on lighting, domestic and commercial by up to 90%. 4. Following on from the LED lighting business, is the introduction of off grid solar lighting and the charging of battery powered devices such as mobile phones and lap tops. 5. The next phase to be demonstrated is AC/DC battery only systems, that uses a battery back up and Inverter/charger to as a UPS system in times of power cuts. 6. Establishing micro grids for such businesses as Booomers Bamboo bikes would need around $10,000 of investment to service a 24 hr small factory need. 7. Show casing many working DC appliances like refrigerators, deep freeze, rice cooker, solar water kettle, DC TV and fans, can all help to reduce pressure on the grid. 8. Rain water harvesting and using solar powered well /water pumps is as important as the selling of solar water heating systems. Without a guaranteed low pressure clean water supply, nobody will benefit from free hot water all year round. 9. A full range of solar water heating systems to be demonstrated for use in homes as well as business, hotels and agriculture. 10. Finally a fully working training and education centre for young people to be educated in the many applications solar energy can support the countries energy needs and jobs

4 An example of the wider issues Throughout my 3 weeks in West Africa in 2014 from Ghana to Nigeria to Cameroon and back to Ghana, there was wide spread electricity cuts daily and what was also missing was any visual site of solar water heating. The picture is of a local council offices that covers many villages I visited in Rural Cameroon, without any water for toilets as the well water pumps did not work as the electricity was cut as is common daily. This was the rainy season, but with no sign of rain water harvesting off the vast roof area of this building, as a 2 nd option to well water.

5 Introduction I am selecting Ghana as the first of many Solar Social Enterprise business models that could follow on, due to the stability of the country and wide spread spoken English. Companies like Booomers Bamboo Bikes located in the Ashanti region, founded by Kwabena Danso, already receiving foreign aid from the UK government to support job creation and exports. It was Kwabena during my meet up with him in London in May, that the idea of establishing a Solar Social Enterprise was spoken about

6 An Overview on how the Solar Social Enterprise would be set up During my 6 days spent with Kwabena Danso, I was introduced with many chiefs of villages all arranged by Kwabena where I was explaining how Power Bank LED lighting charged by solar panels could be easley established in this area. Solar water heating was also discussed, with the offer of this empty building to be used as a laundrette. These premises would have been ideal had the seed capital finance been available at that time, to show case a wide range of energy and water saving technologies that would benefit the surrounding villages. A part of this building could be converted to living accomodation for key employees who would be trained by me to manage the project once up and running

7 The urgency for such companies as Booomers is the guarantee of electricity supply As much as Kwabena Danso secured some foreign aid funding from the UK foreign aid department in 2017, to expand the factory and new jobs created (now 40 full time jobs compared to 12 in 2014) the factory still suffers with power cuts, which affects there ability to complete certain jobs when power tools are needed. With exports now at a record $250,000 a year, with the largest sales to Germany and the Netherlands, exports are also increasing in Canada and as far as Australia. At a cost of around $5,000 plus delivery and a professional installation, so other local businesses could benefit from seeing in real time how a Solar AC/DC system works. All lighting would be changed to LED super bright high lumen LED tubes, more efficient power tools and cordless rechargeable.

8 Light bulb import and sales issues to over come Without a 24/7 guaranteed electricity supply affects the growth of economy of Ghana, with business owners not able to manufacture and sell its products 24/7 this increasing jobs. Establishing a LED lighting assembly business in Accra with imported component parts being shipped at cost from China with government import tax and VAT reductions on sales, could upset the existing importer traders.? LED light bulbs are made up of 5 key parts, all mass produced in volume by manufactures in China, leaving just the assembly, testing and packing to millions of low paid workers. Shipping pre assembled LED bulbs from China is no longer sustainable for Africa, when low quality/short life bulbs are imported by traders and Chinese business men. Research has shown that across the UK and Europe that the BIG brand manufactures do not want to encourage the population to invest in long life low energy LED lighting. Also many Chinese manufactures of LED light bulbs produce the bulbs so they cannot be serviced once they stop working. This guarantees the ongoing exporting of thousands of containers from 6,000 LED assembly companies to the rest of the world at their countries ongoing cost in foreign exchange

9 A pilot LED project was first established in Senegal by Eric in 2016

10 Portable off grid solar charging stations that could benefit millions of street and road traders Across Africa many small business owners and those who work for large companies like MTN (Sth Africa mobile provider) use a Parasol to promote there business, as well as shading from the hot sun and during the rainy season. My latest design the SOLARBRELLA, was developed just for the purpose for converting these parasols to portable solar charging stations. Being flexible and light weight, the Parasol once fully opened, is the perfect roof top to support the Solarbrella. From the 3 designs and wattage outputs, you can charge two mobiles or power banks and power bank LED lights for the night time business, to keep the business trading, where others are in the dark.

11 Portable solar charging station kits can also be assembled and boxed in Ghana As with the LED light bulb assembly proposals, the range of products used in the making up of the boxed portable solar charging station kits can also be shipped as single items with the boxes shipped flat pack for assembly in Ghana. From Ghana, they could be exported to many other parts of West Africa. The initial cost in setting this up is $100,000, to maximise the volume of parts that can be packed into a 20ft container. Single items used in the kits, could also be sold separate in there own branded boxes to those not able to afford the boxed kits.

12 AC/DC UPS systems An AC/DC UPS system (Uninterrupted Power Supply) consists of a Inverter/Charger as shown in the picture top left, which can supply up to 1,000 watts an hour via a DC 12 volt battery. A set of positive and negative cables are connected to the battery or batteries. The AC 240 volt appliance you want to guarantee a power supply too, is plugged into the inverter socket. On the other side, the AC lead with a plug attached is plugged into the mains socket. If there are regular power cuts, you can leave the inverter switched on, but if power cuts only happen at given hours of the day, you can switch on manually. Within seconds of a power cut, the inverter switches over to AC 220 volts. When the power is back on, the battery is re charged, unless like my UK house its connected to the solar panels on the shed roof

13 Micro Off Grid systems for businesses A solar PV micro grid consists of an array of solar panels in sizes watts, the racking to fix the panels to a flat or pitched roof or the ground. Once wired up with pre assembled cables, the power supply is connected to a off grid inverter. This is a battery storage power station that charges the battery bank during the day with a back up mains AC charger for rainy days, while all the appliances are power from the battery storage system. Now available with Lithium battery technology for longer life.

14 DC appliances off grid A single solar PV panel of 200 watts linked to 2 x 100Ah sealed lead acid batteries connected to a Inverter and charge regulator can power a refrigerator for 24 hrs, run portable DC fans, power a LED TV, lighting and rice cookers to name a few. Using outdated old inefficient appliances with a CDE rating means you will need a higher amount of battery storage and PV panels compared to appliances rated A and B

15 Rain Water Harvesting Rainwater harvesting consists of water storage tanks, pumps a diverter valve and filters For the past 16 yrs, my wife and I have profited from the collecting of TAX FREE rain water from the front and back of our UK home where the pumps are power by a solar battery storage system. The diverter valve, diverts the rain water flowing down the drain pipe to the drains which flows into rivers or out to sea into a water butt of around 150 litres Inside each water butt is a submersible pump, which pumps this water through a filter into the main tank of 1,500 Litre (size is subject to your needs) The large water tank is connected to a pressure pump located in the shed, which transfers the rain water through 2 carbon filters into the roof tanks located in the top of the house. The 400 litres in the loft services the hot and cold water taps and toilets

16 Solar Water Heating Solar Water heating systems come in many formats, many types of heat collector technologies and can cost from less than $ for a complete system plus the insulated flexible plumbing and fittings + installation. Solar water heating has been my passion since I first ventured into the tax free ENERGY our planet earth supplies since Five of those years were spent in Cyprus, which today the only country in the world along with Israel, where a solar water heating system is a law to have installed on all new homes. Cyprus proved to me that there are many weaknesses and failures in certain types of systems, if its very hot, the water is from chalk and nobody cares what happens once installed. China is where I educated myself to all the thousands of failures seen across the world from low cost exported systems. Education and installer training is key to success.