In this episode, we speak with six panellists working in energy access: Amaury Fastenakels: Chief Marketing Officer, BBOXX, Michael Sudarkasa: Chief Executive Officer, Africa Business Group, Karl Skare: Managing Director of Global Partnerships and Strategy, d.light, Raghav Sachdeva: Chief Investment Officer, Nithio, and Emily McAteer: Founder & CEO, Odyssey Energy Solutions.

We discuss options to finance energy access in emerging markets, ranging from equity, debt, special purpose vehicles, results based financing and much more.

This episode was part of the Ross Energy Week event in 2021.

In this episode, we speak to Naomi Kioi from Greenlight Planet, one of the largest solar companies in Africa. Greenlight Planet is a social-mission, for profit company which has sold over 1.3m of their Sun King products since 2009 working in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria, expanding at a rate of over 65,000 new solar installations per month.

We discuss:

• The growing influence of telecoms companies in off-grid energy
• How energy access companies are partnering with telecoms companies to expand their customer reach
• Greenlight Planet's goals and how to market solar energy to off-grid customers

Show notes:

• (1:30) Introduction to Greenlight Planet and their focus on SDG 7; their vertically integrated business with manufacturing and distribution
• (4:00) Intro to the role of telecoms in the energy access sector: focus on hard to reach areas where telcos have a physical presence; leveraging the data that telco markets have on customer information
• (7:30) Greenlight Planet's partnerships with telcos - how they work
• (11:00) Use of telco data to provide customer financing and alternative payment solutions
• (13:50) The opportunity of energy access to help telcos diversify their revenue base and customer services
• (23:00) The goals of Greenlight Planet and plans for the coming years
• (27:00) The impact of COVID-19 on off-grid energy - increase of digital and mobile payments; more pre-purchase of energy
• (30:00) Naomi's background and her work in Greenlight Planet - how to market solar to customers
• (38:00) Partnerships as the way to accelerate the deployment of solar in off-grid energy

We speak with Cameron Smith, Product Management Lead at ZOLA Electric, on the process and challenges of developing energy solutions for emerging markets.

We discuss:

• The types of products ZOLA Electric has developed
• Challenges of product management for energy solutions 
• Differences in customer needs and demands across various geographies.

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Show notes: 

• (0:30) Introduction to ZOLA Electric 
• (3:00) Understanding the customer from off-grid to on-grid customer. Primary energy solutions: 
• ZOLA Flex - core product, DC infrastructure with solar and battery, with DC appliances
• ZOLA Infinity - can be a off-grid/on-grid solution, for a customer with some access to grid electricity, able to work with an AC system; modular energy system
• Flex Power - a new product to serve both AC and DC customers, that can work also within a distributed grid 
• (7:40) The product development and management process: collecting demographic data, user needs, comparing with existing market offering. Higher end markets with a greater focus on product differentiation to existing solutions. 
• (10:30) Expectations management: how to set / meet customers' expectations with regards to electricity availability; limitations with regards to product lifespan, availability of electricity; shifting customers from a power focused mindset to an energy focused (taking into account storage also). 
• (13:00) Challenges of working with older appliances with higher energy consumption. The 'benefits' of working with newer DC systems where you can also control the energy demand
• (14:40) Challenges of developing products that can meet the variability of grid power quality; variable wiring or electrical systems
• (16:00) How to manage the power challenges for product development - both operational and technical solutions
• (17:00) How to think about hardware, software, firmware developments
• (19:00) ZOLA'S geographical coverage, moving towards a distributor model and its ability to help ZOLA expand globally
• (20:50) Difference between customer demands by geography - e.g. greater need for air conditioning solutions for East Africa; differing penetration of smart phones
• (21:40) Customers benchmarking against a Tesla Powerwall solution
• (34:00) Challenges of working in West Africa, greater awareness of fraud, preference of financing solutions to ensure the product is working as expected; differing willingness to provide personal information to banks
• (36:00) East Africa: more trusting environment, greater focus on building education and awareness of solar products and solutions
• (37:00) Cameron's background and previous interest in global development; challenges of providing energy solutions that can meet customer needs 
• (42:00) The shifting focus towards peri-urban solutions, more people interested in global systems
• (44:30) Customer facing brand changing to "ZOLA" Electric - that resonates across Africa, not just in East Africa and Swahili
• (46:20) Future focus of ZOLA: greater focus on Infinity product, greater focus on microgrid systems and distributed grid solution - Infinite Grid product
• (50:00) Recommended books: 'Territories of Differences' by A. Escobar for greater awareness of cultural differences
• (52:20) Advice: make sure you have a good understanding of the end user
• (53:00) Predictions: Greater focus on microgrids, more focus on peri-urban customers