HydroWheel Product and Business Case Development

Floating across rivers and streams to generate affordable, accessible renewable energy with less damage to the local ecosystem, HydroWheel is the world's first inflatable waterwheel. It emphasises lower costs, durability, easy installation and continuous power production. The innovation's commercial and impact potential in sub-Saharan Africa is further enhanced by the region's abundant hydro resources, where the installed capacity is estimated at 30.4 GW; 300 GW potential remains untapped.

The deployment of off-grid renewable energy systems is a cost-effective solution expected to contribute significantly to satisfying power needs, driving economic growth and industrialisation and reducing poverty throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

This project will determine how HydroWheel can commercialise and optimise the design of its innovation to provide an alternative (or complementary) technology to incumbent renewable energy technologies (including conventional pico-hydro, solar PV, diesel generators) and ultimately satisfy the electricity needs of under-served communities throughout SSA (starting with Uganda). This project is particularly determined to understand, test and ultimately sell to market segments that promote the productive use of electricity, further catalysing economic development, employment creation and productivity enhancements in rural areas.

Hydrowheel Ltd will: hone the design of the waterwheel, optimising the waterwheel pockets (paddles) and examining their suitability for manufacture in small textile workshops in sub-Saharan Africa; optimising specification and sourcing suitable generators and gearboxes in conjunction with an experienced waterwheel manufacturer; and running a small-scale trial and then larger trial in Knoydart, Scotland.

CREEC will be responsible for the Pilot Project Development phase in Uganda that involves literature review, community engagement (initial consultation and surveys of local communities), future project scoping, initial location screening, designing a pilot project and conducting technical field studies and finally conducting environmental and social impact assessments.

MicroGen will use its "ISMO" GIS tool to survey river valleys in the target areas, identifying sites which conform to the project's definition of 'potential' and provide market and industry knowledge to support business plan development, and to facilitate research.

Challenges Catalyst and Challenges Uganda will support HydroWheel to create a viable commercialisation strategy to exploit the innovation. This will include key activities such as market sizing of beachhead market; micro-segmentation and development of relationships with key customers; identifying in-country value chain integration and creation opportunities; business and financial modelling and route to market strategising.