{"id":7599,"date":"2020-01-20T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=7599"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:48","slug":"azuri-starts-piloting-internet-enabled-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/01\/20\/azuri-starts-piloting-internet-enabled-solar-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Azuri Starts Piloting Internet-Enabled Solar System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Solar power firm Azuri Technologies is piloting internet-enabled home solar kits targeting off-grid households in Kenyan villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\nBritish firm, founded in the University of Cambridge, said it has built Wi-Fi\nrouters within its solar package to connect remote villages to the global\ninternet highway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re\nin the piloting phase,\u201d Azuri East Africa general manager Snehar Shah said in\nan interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\nfeel village economies have a right to information through connectivity,\u201d he\nadded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\ncompany products are designed and researched in Cambridge University by a pool\nof in-house PhD scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\nopened its regional offices in Nairobi in 2016, connecting over 150,000 homes\nto solar electricity in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\nsolar kits are designed and patented in Cambridge but manufactured in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Company executives said that they have spent over Sh2 billion in Kenyan operations since 2016 and plan to invest a similar amount in the coming 2-3 years through loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/azuri-products-1024x769.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7600\" width=\"523\" height=\"392\"\/><figcaption><em>Azuri packages<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Azuri has two packages where customers pay weekly for use of its solar-powered equipment (pay-as-you-go) over a staggered period of time (between 12 and 18 months) upon which payments stop and clients assume ownership of the kits. Payments are through mobile money. This flexible payment plan has made it affordable for poor homes to use solar power as a payable service since the majority cannot afford the lump sum cost of buying the equipment upfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Azuri\u2019s\nflagship package (Quad) involves a solar panel that comes with four LED solar lights,\nportable radio, storage battery and a mobile phone charging system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\nsecond solar package comes with an added feature of a 24 inch smart TV. The\ncompany already has partnerships with satellite TV providers Zuku and Star\nTimes, giving off-grid homes access to over 50 TV channels and 21 Radio\nchannels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Use of solar electricity is estimated to save rural households an estimated $35 (Sh3,500) per year, during the period they make payments for use of kits, with the savings further rising upon assuming ownership. This effectively means the freed-up cash among low-income households can be directed to other income-generating uses, spurring rural economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other\ncompanies running the pay-as-you-go model in Kenya include Nairobi-based\nM-Kopa, Indian company Orb Energy, Germany-based Mobisol and Danish solar firm\nM-PAYG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\ngovernment has set a universal electricity access target of 2022, to be\nachieved through a combination of increased connectivity of homes to the\nnational grid and off-grid solar power solutions for remote villages, largely\nby private investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solar power firm Azuri Technologies is piloting internet-enabled home solar kits targeting off-grid households in Kenyan villages. The British firm, founded in the University of Cambridge, said it has built&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[226,866,1105,1254],"class_list":["post-7599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility","tag-azuri-technologies","tag-internet","tag-pay-as-you-go","tag-solar-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}