Tesla Backed ZOLA Electric In Solving Africa’s Energy Shortage
Tesla backed ZOLA Electric in solving Africa’s energy shortage
Access to a stable, affordable, and reliable power supply has been a long-standing issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, impeding economic growth. As the region's population grows, the magnitude of the problem becomes more apparent.
According to Manfred Hafner and Simone Tagliapietra Lucia de Strasser's Energy in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities, approximately 600 million people out of 1.07 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa did not have access to electricity in 2018.
While efforts are being made to expand access to electricity, population growth continues to outpace these efforts.
Interestingly, certain regions of Africa have a high rate of connectivity. According to Afrobarometer, Egypt has a 100% connection rate, South Africa has a 95% connection rate, and Nigeria has a 90% connection rate.
However, Nigeria's high percentage of access contrasts sharply with its supply rate of 17%. This means that electrical connections to people's homes and businesses do not imply a continuous supply of electricity.
Regrettably, in the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is either high connection rates with insufficient supply or low connection rates with adequate supply, or both. Burundi is an example, with a connection rate of less than 25% and a supply rate of less than 19%.
As Africa's population and economic growth requirements increase, so does the demand for a reliable and sustainable energy source.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) Africa predicts in its Energy Outlook 2019 that the continent's population will surpass China's by 2025, making it critical to meet the continent's energy demands.
Connecting 600 million people
Africa's electricity challenges are not novel, and businesses are constantly developing technological solutions to address them.
ZOLA Electric is one of these businesses. It all began when American co-founder Xavier Helgesen hitchhiked through Malawi.
Helgesen spent time with a family in a fishing village on the shores of Lake Malawi while in Malawi. After discovering that the family used kerosene lanterns to light their home, he had an epiphany and immediately set about devising a solution to the continent's electricity crisis.
Helgesen conducted research on solar energy during his master's program at the University of Oxford in England. He met two other Americans there — Erica Mackey, a Tanzanian native, and Joshua Pierce, a renewable energy expert — with whom he co-founded ZOLA Electric.
Together, they devised a strategy for providing affordable solar solutions to Africans, and in 2012, they launched ZOLA Electric in Tanzania, initially as an off-grid solution.
ZOLA Electric's CEO, Bill Lenihan, tells Techpoint Africa that the company was founded on the Co-founders' passion to "solve a big problem" because "2.2 billion people on the planet lack access to reliable energy, and those people are disproportionately affected."
ZOLA Electric, according to Lenihan, is not a solar company but one that enables solar. He describes it as a company that develops digital energy solutions that provide users and suppliers with real-time data on their energy consumption.
“There is a need for affordable and clean energy, and solar meets that need. However, the larger issue is market unreliability, and since renewables are by definition unreliable, the other critical need to address this is storage.”
Harshit Chatur, a senior director at integrated power company NRG Energy, echoes Lenihan's assertions, stating that renewable energy sources are uncontrollable supply resources.
“Solar panels do not generate energy when the sun is not shining. When the wind is not blowing, turbines also do not generate electricity.”
Lenihan believes ZOLA stands out as a primary solution to Africa's energy crisis, rather than a backup.
He asserts that the majority of solutions available in Africa and Southeast Asia are backups. He cites the example of a Lagos home that is connected to the grid but requires a backup generator and an inverter — an expensive solution that cannot guarantee continuous power.
In comparison, ZOLA Electric develops intelligent batteries that manage all available power sources. Essentially, everything passes through the battery as it intelligently switches power sources.
ZOLA Electric's Infinity product harvests energy from solar panels, power grids, and other sources. It then switches to the most readily available energy source while storing energy via installed software.
Infinity can detect changes in the environment if the power source is solar, or power surges if the power source is an electrical grid, as demonstrated in ZOLA Electric's video demonstration.
Lenihan describes it simply as an energy management system that functions similarly to a storage system but performs additional functions.
“It takes data and organizes it according to the homeowner's priorities,” he explains.
ZOLA Electric sells its products through distributors who deal directly with customers.
They install and maintain ZOLA Electric solutions. It is, in essence, a business-to-business (B2B) model.
Journey through the years
Lenihan's journey has been one of developing and pioneering new technology. The company has learned over the years what works best for the continent and what does not.
The process began in rural Africa, with an assessment of what people truly needed and the most sustainable way to provide it.
“We began with lights and phone chargers and progressed to television power. As we moved into more urban on-grid areas where people desired truly productive use and large systems, the energy apparatus became even more complicated.”
He refers to it as a product journey and acknowledges that while there have been numerous errors, they have also made significant progress.
The energy market in Africa is quite complicated. Each country, city, and user has unique requirements, and over the years, ZOLA Electric has developed products that are sufficiently adaptable to meet those requirements.
Along with developing a flexible product, the company was also establishing a digital energy industry.
According to Lenihan, the industry was new, and while they built alongside other companies such as M-Kopa, forging an entire industry remains a challenge.
However, the co-founders' passion for the business, which is shared by employees and partners, has consistently kept it afloat. And Lenihan believes it will aid in the growth of the industry.
“We require individuals who are committed to completing the task.”
What the future may bring
Tesla is currently the second largest investor in the company. This occurred as a result of SolarCity, a California-based solar company, investing in ZOLA Electric "about five years ago," Lenihan clarifies.
Tesla acquired SolarCity a few years later, making Tesla the second largest shareholder in ZOLA Electric.
Lenihan outlines his vision for the distributed digital energy industry.
“I see a renewed global focus on energy equality and access, and I hope that the momentum that exists today to assist emerging markets in developing an energy infrastructure continues.
“And I believe distributed digital energy is the way forward for emerging markets.”
Currently, the company supplies electricity to over 1.5 million people in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
While Lenihan asserts that ZOLA Electric develops primary energy solutions, the company continues to rely on alternative energy sources.
He admits that the company's current product set does not fully address the issue, but he believes that in a few years, the company will develop one that does.
Though he believes the industry has a bright future, he acknowledges that it will not be easy.
“If it were easy, there would be no 2.2 billion people without access to reliable energy.”
