Energizing Women Agricultural Cooperatives Via a Smart, Pay-As-You-Go Battery Solution

Martin Tarkpor of the Liberia Institute for Development Assessment and Research in Liberia will pilot test a battery rental system for women agricultural cooperatives to use to power their food processing equipment and sustainably increase their productivity and incomes. Food processing, such as rice threshing and milling and palm kernel pressing, is typically done using equipment operated manually or with a generator. Pay-as-you-go battery rental systems are a rapidly growing alternative to provide affordable, clean power to low-income communities off the power grid. Batteries are charged at solar charging stations and then rented directly there or distributed through agents. They will perform field trials in Liberia and then Sierra Leone, testing the battery rental system at six cooperatives and at different times in the growing season to encompass multiple crops. Based on the trials, they will develop a simple business model to facilitate rolling out the battery system more broadly in sub-Saharan African countries.