Peoples Portable Power® is a Danish startup from November 2016. The company has developed an innovative power solution for families living without public electricity supply in, for example, Africa.
Education, healthcare and small businesses need electricity, but in rural areas in Africa, it is difficult and expensive to roll out public networks. Therefore, many people only have light from unhealthy oil lamps and poor electricity from small and inefficient sunlights or disposable batteries. When discarded, it leads to environmental pollution - including groundwater and crop pollution.
Steen Kramer Jensen, who is the founder of the company, was through his work as an engineer in the energy sector, in Africa. And during the visit, Steen could see that the solutions available to the people in the rural areas were unsustainable for both the environment and the general economic capacity. So the idea of developing a solution that was both efficient and had no impact on the environment started.
In his spare time, Steen developed the first prototype of a battery and a payment system. A system that also had to handle a simple leasing model via mobile payment. The prototype was tested for a year at his home - and when it became clear that it was possible to produce the product with readily available components, and the payment model would also work in practice, Steen quit his job and went full time into the project. After that, the first real trial version was developed in early 2017, with the aim of testing the product with families in Kenya.
In 2018, the final product was produced in 100 pieces. and the system now runs, operating with the online/payment section connected with a number of families in Kenya.
The product
The product is a portable battery that can be recharged via the supplied solar panel or at solar shops. The battery is very powerful and can provide power for light, charging mobile phones etc. Along with the Battery Pack comes wires with sockets and LED bulbs, a rechargeable flashlight with built-in radio and necessary plugs to e.g. mobile phones and other rechargeable equipment.
The development
Of course, there has been plenty of challenges along the way, but the basic idea has been the same. The system works and there are only positive indications from the families who participated in the pilot project in Kenya. The Power Pack is fully developed and in 2019 Peoples Portable Power was established in Tanzania. During 2019, a larger production of 1,000 batteries were produced and is currently being sold through local partners in Kenya and Tanzania.
The financing was partly provided by Steen Kramer Jensen's private funds and innovation funds along with investors. The project will also in the future look for funds and private investors, to realize the final roll-out on a larger scale.
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