UMBANE: Powering innovative sustainable businesses with productive use appliances in South African informal settlements at the margins of the grid
Status: Active
Funders: Newton Fund
Status: Active
Funders: Newton Fund
‘Umbane’ is the isiXhosa word for ‘electricity’
The UMBANE project aims to deliver solar microgrids to provide refrigeration capacity in Qando Qando, Cape Town, including providing business support for 21 female entrepreneurs.
Qando Qando is an informal settlement of approximately 3,500 households. It was founded in 2018 as an extension of a pre-existing existing informal settlement, Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Qando
Qando Qando residents are not connected national South African energy grid. Residents most commonly access electricity for refrigeration and other services through illegal connections, or burn paraffin, wood, and plastic. |
Refrigeration is the single most desired use for electricity in the community. Refrigeration not only enables residents to store drinks, food, and medicine, but also creates economic opportunities and avenues for sustainable future employment.
Solar fridges come in a range of sizes and offer benefits for households and businesses.
Associated benefits include:
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Toward supporting the innovative development and use of refrigeration services, the project has the following key objectives:
- Increase access to safe and affordable energy through providing solar mini-grids
- Enhance local livelihoods and human wellbeing by offering cleaner and more reliable energy options
- Identify and create employment opportunities through providing refrigeration services
- Help establish 21 sustainable female-led businesses through enhanced refrigeration services
- Monitor the operation and efficiency of solar refrigeration systems
- Identify successes and failures for refining the use of solar mini-grids in informal settings going forward
- Develop academic and policy outputs to guide policymaking and practice
Implementation of solar mini-grids in Qando Qando, Cape Town
Project and research findings are intended to shape energy policy going forward, including providing valuable lessons for scalability.
A FOCUS ON RESEARCH
Throughout the development and implementation of the project, the following data will be gathered.
- Qualitative. Face-to-face working sessions, interviews, community meetings and observation.
- Quantitative. Technical record keeping. Load and efficiency reporting. Business development indicators. Technology assisted survey data collection via W3W.
PROJECT TEAM
ACADEMIA
United Kingdom
Federico Caprotti
Federico Caprotti is the project lead. Based at the University of Exeter, he is an urban geographer with a central interest in researching urban futures. Federico also led (2016-19) an ESRC Urban Transformations project on energy transitions in South African municipalities. He also led the international 2015-19 Smart Eco-Cities for a Green Economy (SMART-ECO), funded by the ESRC, China's NSFC, and the national research funding agencies of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. |
Kerry Bobbins
Kerry Bobbins has worked on developing knowledge on sustainable urban infrastructure at the academia-policy interface for the last 9 years. During this time, she has worked closely with a range of government, private sector and civil society stakeholders in South Africa and the United Kingdom to produce academically relevant policy outputs on water, sanitation and energy. Kerry is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Umbane project, where she works closely with the core research team to gather and analyse data and co-develop academic policy outputs. |
South Africa
Jiska de groot
Jiska de Groot manages the South Africa project team. As an energy and development geographer working as Senior Researcher at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town, she works on the human dimensions of sustainable energy access, energy poverty, gender and capacity building. She has a strong focus on co-designed and participatory research that is policy- and practice-relevant for achieving local development benefits and change processes. |
Mascha Moorlach
Mascha Moorlach works the University of Cape Town. On the project, she is at the interface between engineering and social science approaches to energy and wellbeing, and is responsible for contracting. She holds an MSc in Building Systems from Eindhoven University of Technology, and works on energy efficiency projects in support of the Eskom Demand Side Management Programme and the Skills and Expertise Development programme as part of the Transforming Energy Access project. |
Whitney Pailman
Whitney Pailman is currently a PhD Candidate in Energy and Development at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She holds a Masters in Energy and Development from UCT and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Johannesburg. She combines research and project experience in off-grid energy access business models, social enterprises and the gender-energy nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a Research Fellow for the Umbane project, working on research design, data collection and research outputs. She has also served as a Research Fellow for the Transforming Energy Access Learning Partnership at the ACDI. |
PRIVATE SECTOR
Hendrik Schloemann
Hendrik Schloemann is a geologist and entrepreneur with more than twenty years of operational and corporate experience in Africa, South America and the United Kingdom. Coming from the mining sector and driven by the potential that renewable energies hold for Africa, he recently re-directed his focus to this sector. His ambition is to prove a model for a micro-utility company that utilises renewable energies to service off-grid communities with electricity. He is the founder of Zonke Energy and growing this social enterprise presently is his main focus. |
Alex Densmore
Alex Densmore is technical director at Zonke Energy, with a decade of experience in off-grid energy. At Simpa Energy India, he led development of pay-as-you-go metering systems. Alex has worked as a consultant and volunteer for universities and manufacturers at the intersection of health, ICT and energy. He holds a Masters degree in power-electronics from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. |
Kimenthrie Pillay
Kimenthrie Pillay is a sustainable energy consultant and founder of Thrie Energy Collective: she is responsible for app-based wellbeing data collection and our baseline survey. Thrie Energy Collective works to apply digital methods to enrich energy and development practices. Prior to founding Thrie Energy Collective, Kimenthrie worked on improving and diversifying low-income energy service delivery in the Energy and Climate Change Unit at the City of Cape Town. |
CIVIL SOCIETY
Ellen Fischat
Founder of Story Room. She holds an Honour’s Degree in Social Work and Community Development, as well as a number of small business and technology certificates. Ellen has extensive experience in small business development, with a focus on social enterprises and technology. She mentors technology start-ups and designs community outreach programs that focus on personal development, digital literacy, and increasing employability of marginalized women through STEM initiatives. |
Siseko Siwali
Siseko is a serial entrepreneur and strategist with multiple years of entrepreneurship in the media industry, helping entrepreneurs and brands produce company, brand, and marketing concepts strategies. He has 13 years of experience in various aspects of Sales, Management, and Leadership. |
GET IN TOUCH
Contact:
Prof. Federico Caprotti, Co-principal investigator, United Kingdom, [email protected].
Dr Jiska de Groot, Co-principal investigator, South Africa, [email protected].
Follow:
Prof. Federico Caprotti, Co-principal investigator, United Kingdom, [email protected].
Dr Jiska de Groot, Co-principal investigator, South Africa, [email protected].
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