Solving the electricity problem for 350 million mobile phone users in Sub-Saharan Africa The ElectroSwap solution An undeniable truth... Yes, electricity is important, but what is the problem... 620 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity at home, that is the problem According to the International Energy Agency, in 2012, 68% of households in Sub-Saharan Africa were not connected to the grid (84% of rural households) But people in Sub-Sahara Africa do have mobile phones! There are 650 million mobile phones among 950 million people SOURCE: ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT APPENDIX And they do need light! And the million phone owners with no electricity at home... what do they do? This! They drop their phones off at Charging stations... and wait. Curiously, the word electricity is not mentioned once in the Ericsson study Bridging the digital divide - How mobile phones are playing a key role in connecting people in Sub-Saharan Africa. is a BIG problem with a simple solution Having a mobile phone and needing light but having no electricity at home A similar problem is a home without gas line but that uses gas. This is how it is solved! You simply pay a fee and swap bottles with no waiting for refilling. Quick & Easy! ? No, you do not swap your phone! But how do you use the swap principle for phones..... A so-called Power Bank can act acts as an extra and external battery! One can obviate the need for leaving phones at charging stations for hours by introducing Power Banks and swapping them quickly, easily and safely. Problem solved! ElectroSwap, swapping for electricity The ElectroSwap solution An exchange system for Power banks consisting of Charging Stations for charging Power banks and a Distribution Network for charged Power banks The charging station equipment Solar panels Batteries for storing solar energy Electricity generator, possibly running on biofuel or bio gas Hubs for connecting chargers The charging station equipment Charging station A charging station can be a very simple building and can be erected anywhere Distribution of charged Power Banks Power Banks can also provide light Without electric light connection you may use kerosen lamps, candles or battery driven flash lights at home to give you light after night has fallen, which happen quite early in tropical areas. All three solutions are expensive and kerosen lamps and candles is a fire hazard and kerosene lamp is a health hazard in addition. A Power Bank and a LED USB lamp will solve the problem. A small Power Bank of 15 Wh (3000 mAh at 5 V) can run a 1,2 Watt lamp for 12 hours. 1,2 Watt, surely that is nothing!? Well, it gives the same light (measured in lumen) as 6 candles or 6 wick kerosene lamps! Power Banks can also provide light! Yes, 1,2 Watt! A squaremeter of solarpanel can in one hour charge Power Banks to run of these for 8 hours each. A flexible 1,2 W LED light mounted on a Power Bank thru the USB port Power Banks can also provide light! One single kerosene wick lamp running 4 hours a day will use approx. 3 l of kerosene per month at a substantial cost and besides being a fire hazard it creates a really bad indoor air quality since it leaves toxic fumes. One 1,2 W USB light produces the same light, In lumen, as six kerosene lamps and is 400 times as energy efficient as kerosene even if it the electricity it consumes (via the Power Bank) is produced by a petrol fueled electric generator. Powered by solar panels There is no fuel cost and no pollution inside or outside. An app to bind them and in the darkness find them 17 With an app one will always be able to find the closest place to swap ones Power Bank Statistics 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity worldwide The majority reside in Sub-Saharan Africa and India India would therefore also be an immense market for this concept But millions of people with mobile phones all over the world would benefit from this solution. And millions of households need indoor light! 18 Business Model / Calculations/ Example In many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the standard price to charge a mobile phone is $0.25-0,50. One Power Bank roughly charges a mobile phone, holding 10 Wh and takes approximately 2 hours to charge. The cost of a customized Power Bank is $ 2,0 USD if purchased in large quantities. The idea is that customers purchase a Power Bank at self- cost. The resellers would bring the discharged Power Banks to a charging central, where staff would immediately provide them with an equal number of fully charged Power Banks. A 5 kW diesel electric generator could charge 1,000 Power Banks simultaneously (5,000 units in 10 hours) with just 15 liters (0.003 liter per fully charged Power Bank). The cost of a generator and 2,000 charge sockets (you would use half, and the other half for mounting) is approximately $4,000 USD. The generator can be run on biofuel or biogas for better environmental performance. The 5 kW generator can be partly replaced by solar panels. 20 pieces of 250 Watt panels (1,5 sqm each) can produce the same power as the electric generator (when the sun is shining). If the Distributors were to charge $0.20 USD per swap and pay the charging station $0.12 to re-charge the Power Banks (50-50 split after overhead cost of 0,04 USD, $200 a day (rent, replacing equipment including Power Banks*, salaries etc), the gross daily revenue for a charging station would be $400. Staff wages in sub-Saharan Africa are on average just $2-$4 per day. Assuming that mobile phone users swap their Power Banks every 4 days on average, each charging station would be able to serve 20,000 mobile phone users through an distribution network. 50 resellers collecting and swapping in an average of 100 Power Banks each day would make $240 per month. With the lower cost and greater convenience, mobile phone owners would likely use their phones more and charge them more often, so resellers will have a higher turnover. *The Power Bank can be recharged 500 times before replacement. 20 The ElectroSwap system would become a suitable side business for regular vendors, retailers and small shops and even roadside stalls / motorcycles since they do not need to have an electric generator to provide charges. A Distributor can thus have a sub-network of resellers that they collect used Power Banks from and supply them with charged Power Banks from the central charging station. An ambulating distributor can for instance pick up dozens of Power Banks at each village once a week. The initial administrative / logistical cost of setting up a charging station in an area would likely be $20,000 and the cost of 25,000 Power Banks an additional $ (which would be re-couped when sold to the end users except for 5000, USD, that is buffer). At $400 daily revenue, the investment would in theory be regained within 70 days of full capacity, but it would likely take a few months to develop the customer base. Hence ROI would be at least 6 months, probably a year. Once the business is established, the net earning would be approximately $12,000 USD per month for every 20,000 customer served in a charging station with this capacity. Customers would on average be spending $1.50 USD per month, which is a relatively low sum. 5 charging stations serving 100,000 customers would net $720,000 USD per year* Considering that mobile phones cost $30-$100 and re-charging costs around $0.50, the $1.50 investment in a Power Bank is a negligible sum. The buy in could perhaps even be bundled in with telephone sales and the phone vendors could use it as a sales incentive. Most customers use pre-paid services so the same entity selling phone cards could offer Power Bank swaps, thus being part of the distribution network. *More services can be added, indoor LED light run on power banks, surf-pads, lap tops, other electronics with USB and inbuilt battery that need to be charged Of course other models are possible, more decentralized and eventually households would have solar panels at home for charging and only use the centralized charging stations when there is no sun, in the rainy season etc. 21 Benefits for all Time savings Rather than waiting 2 hours for their phone battery to recharge at a charging station 100 times a year, mobile phone owners can swap in their Power Bank in a matter of seconds. Convenience Vendors of charging would no longer need to spend time plugging in phones and dealing with tangled power cords or keeping track of which phone belongs to whom Security Phone users dont need to hand over their phones to a charging station and risk having it stolen or otherwise compromised. Which will be of great consequence as people in Sub-Saharan Africa conduct more and more mobile banking. Environment Those living in rural areas need not drive a e.g. motorcycle to a town to recharge their phones as often. They can instead have several Power Banks and recharge all of them at once. Or collect a number of Power Banks in the village and make a tour for several replacements. 23 Next step 23 People are now used to handle Power Banks. It gives them access to run their Moibile Phones and indoor light as well as other electronics like radio, speakers The next step is to get their own solar panel for local charging. For about 100 USD one time cost* they will be able to daily charge a 100 Wh Power Bank at no rainy season. During rainy season they can got to Charging station and swap. With a small hub they can charge the Power Bank and smaller Power Banks and/or Mobile phones, Pads, small USB radios. A full charge can run several indoor lights simultanous, a small radio, loud speakers, charge mobile phones etc. *Can of course be paid in installments. DoneDeal An app for documenting deals An app for signing simple Deals. Can be used for ElectroSwap purpose, when selling and renting equipment to customers.