The access to energy sector has overcome many challenges and the electrification of millions of customers has paved the way for achieving access to reliable and affordable electricity for nearly all households by 2030. So, the next challenge is: When will all small businesses, smallholder farmers, and public institutions, have access to all the energy needed to run productive businesses and efficient services?

The A2EI provides broad, reliable open-source data, as well as on-the-ground research and analysis of solar solutions and software platforms to administer these. Utilizing this data, they develop and distribute solar generators that are robust, affordable, and tailored to local needs. They believe the A2EI can be the collaborative platform where engineers, together with potential customers, devise and develop the necessary portfolio of “income generating machines“ run on solar energy. This will allow users to earn a stable income, generate jobs and create robust local economic networks.

Simultaneously, they concentrate on clean energy appliances with a high potential to mitigate climate change, creating a substantial added benefit for the environment, and improve peoples’ health – such as clean cooking and e-mobility solutions. Oftentimes, those solutions show great potential, but have yet failed to be commercialized or widely distributed, partly due to a lack of engineering and innovation resources. The A2EI aims to fill this gap, not only with own staff, but as a host putting engineering, customer knowledge and financial resources at the disposition of the offgrid sector.

They have increasingly invested in creating open source automated software platforms that allow to communicate with any solar system out in the field, which gives them the chance to gather and analyse on their usefulness for customers. This information resource is unique and should help the whole sector take better decisions to reach SDG7.