Eight19 to pioneer pay-as-you-go solar for emerging markets

A UK firm has developed a new pay-as-you-go solar energy technology that aims to tap into the huge potential market for off-grid applications in developing economies.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, Simon Bransfield-Garth, chief executive of solar film manufacturer Eight19, said the company's new IndiGo system has been tailored to overcome the financial barriers presented by the high upfront cost of solar technologies, by allowing users to pay for a solar system battery unit with built-in mobile phone charger and LED lamp as they use it.

Bransfield-Garth said more than one-fifth of the world's population, some 1.68 billion people, lack access to grid electricity, but are deterred from using solar panels because of the high upfront costs. Instead, they are forced to use generators powered by kerosene, which are far more expensive and more carbon-intensive than grid energy.

The IndiGo system seeks to avoid upfront costs by emulating the mobile phone industry's pay-as-you-go phone model, allowing customers to buy credit by texting a code and their unit number to the company. They then receive a passcode to put into the unit, which will work for the specified time.

"They get the product at a lower cost – instead of $60 upfront they might pay $1 a week," Bransfield-Garth said. "It makes the whole thing affordable and offers solar power for significantly lower than they are paying for kerosene fuel."

He added that the system not only allows people to work longer in the evenings, increasing their earnings potential, it also saves many customers in rural communities the five or six hours they currently spend walking into town and waiting to charge their phones at communal generators.

Moreover, he claimed it could help tackle the problem of air pollution from kerosene, which is thought to be responsible for the deaths of 1.6 to two million people every year.

The IndiGo system is currently being piloted in Kenya over the next three months, in conjunction with the charity Solar Aid, and over the next three months will be rolled out to Zambia, Malawi and India ahead of a full commercial launch in 2012.

India represents a huge prospective market for the company, which is looking to launch a £10m funding round at the end of next year to further fund its expansion.

While the technology could also be used in industrialised economies, Eight19, named after the amount of time it takes for the sun's light to reach the earth, is firmly focusing on the potential emerging markets offer.

"What we've found is that people might start off with a 2.5W system, but want more to run a TV or something," Bransfield-Garth said. "So we not only have new customers, we have scale-ups too."