Resilience Fund supporting Mobile Power's Project "Innovation in Battery Storage for multiple uses in Sierra Leone"

Mobile Power has designed and tested an energy distribution ecosystem that supplies affordable, clean power to poor households and enterprises in off-grid communities in Sierra Leone using a pay-as-you-go smart battery rental system. The core innovation is in the cost-effective distribution of electricity off-grid. Mobile Power's batteries are charged at solar charging stations called "MOPO Hubs". The MOPO Batteries are then rented directly from the Hub or through Distribution Agents, who are paid on commission, travelling up to 10km from the hub delivering MOPO Batteries. Agents rent the Smart Battery Packs to remote customers using our mobile phone app. The inbuilt security system prevents unauthorised activation of battery packs.

This project will focus on extending this ecosystem by developing a significantly larger lithium-ion battery pack in partnership with the University of Sheffield called the MOPO600\. This will be used as energy storage for mini-grids and also will be "hot swappable" -- meaning it can also be rented out for household, business and transport use.

A customer will be able to rent a battery which has been removed from the bank of batteries needed to store solar energy from solar mini-grids, but which are often not used at full capacity. The customer would be able to plug the battery into a light 3-wheel electric vehicle and deliver other charged batteries out into the local village. Some can be used to run fridges for medicines in hospitals, for example, whilst others might be used commercially for running freezers to preserve food, sewing machines or barbers' clippers, and others still might be used in customer's homes to run small appliances, charge phones and power lighting.

Simulated field trials will take place at two sites in Sierra Leone. Firstly, at project partner Winch Energy's mini-grid in rural Sierra Leone with the aim of testing whether the MOPO600 will unlock additional revenue streams for solar mini-grids through maximising the revenue-generating potential of the battery storage component of the mini-grid. Women will be employed as energy entrepreneurs to rent out the MOPO600 from the Winch site for household and micro-enterprise use. The second test site will be project partner Pink Power's site in Freetown where a trial will take place of electric tuk-tuks that will be powered by MOPO600s. Women will be employed to drive the tuk-tuks through a partnership with local NGO Pink Power who have an existing project training vulnerable women as tuk-tuk drivers.