We are in Rio de Janairo presenting at BNDES (National Bank for Development)

As part of the Clean and Cool mission we have the chance to present at BNDES.

Great insights and lots of possibilities to bring BuffaloGrid to the off grid communities of Brazil.

Brazil is a great example of the limitations of the Grid, even when the government has made a fantastic job in bringing the grid to more than 11 million people in the last decade through their project "Luz para todos" there are still 1-2 million people living in the amazon region where bringing the grid is not cost effective and not sustainable.

Decentralized power solution like BuffaloGrid are the key to reach universal access to electricity.

BuffaloGrid one of the most promising clean tech SMEs in the UK

"Clean and Cool Mission Brazil is an entrepreneur mission to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for twenty of the UK’s most promising and innovative cleantech SMEs ready to do business overseas. The Mission will help winning companies: develop quality contacts within value chains, gain unique insight, profit from fresh stimulus, and improve pitch and profile."

BuffaloGrid one of the top ten most innovating business in the UK - Smarta100

"The Smarta 100, in partnership with O2, seeks to find the best businesses in the UK. We are not just looking for those who make the most money, but the businesses that have the most original ideas and make a true difference. We want to find the beacons of enterprising Britain, the small firms that are pushing the economic recovery forward, be it a brilliant social enterprise, an inspiring young tech start-up or a small manufacturer"

BuffaloGrid at the UN

We were at  the High Level Dialogue on ICT Innovations at the International Telecommunications Union ,specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. We believe that  access to power and Internet are the only real tools to help eliminate poverty. 

Check the coverage of BuffaloGrid on New Scientist

Send a text message to charge your cellphone

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729075.500-send-a-text-message-to-charge-your-cellphone.html

Uganda Trial 2013

On the 27th of January 2013 the BuffaloGrid team reached Uganda. We then travel into the country to reach Mbale, a town with an estimated population of 91,000 inhabitants. This town is mostly on grid but power still unreliable, from there we traveled to the communities where our solutions could be deployed and tested. 

Our goal was to deployed our services in very different scenarios and track the behavior of the service and our users.  We proved the hardware’s charging / solar capture capability, robustness and the fitness for purpose of the cellular link back-end design.

At Konokoyi Organic Coffee Growers Co-operative which is a growers’ organisation in the foothills of Mount Elgon, Bududa District, Uganda we deployed a BuffaloGrid-Hub where an SMS could be sent to pay for a unit of electricity for phone charging. This is unit was run by Juliet Nandutu, the Manager for Konokoyia and the first BuffaloGrid agent.

The unit is running very well, charging several phones per day. Uptake is good from the farmers who are happy to do the cashless payment with their phones in return of electricity. The co-op is a convenient place for them to charge as they visit frequently as part of their day-to-day business.

Juliet our first BuffaloGrid agent

At Kisinyo village is on an un-tarmacked track around 30 minutes drive from Bungokho Rural development centre that has a population of around 200 people we deployed another BuffaloGrid-Hub where an SMS could be sent to pay for 90 minutes of phone charging time. This is run by Geoffrey, a local young man, who runs it from his mother’s house and who actually ran the first Buffalo bicycle charger unit back in 2011.

He was quite impressed with our developments and was very happy that he now did not need to pedal for hours to charge phones

Geoffrey initially had trouble where people did not have the credit to pay for the charge and so would go and get credit and charge somewhere else. However, he has taken this as an opportunity and now sells airtime alongside charging as complementary businesses.

Geoffrey and Eryasa. Geoffrey has been helping right from the beginning, he was in our first trial back in 2011 

At Mbale, a major city in Eastern Uganda with a population of around 100 000 people we deployed yet another BuffaloGrid Hub. This is run by Sylvia, a local single mother to two children. Sylvia runs a small kiosk here selling packets of soup and mobile airtime, along with sweet bananas and some bread.

Many people living and working close by have access to some sort of grid power so Sylvia's hub has a very variable performance. Days when there is no power she has record breaking charging numbers but at other times the intake is low.

Sylvia charging one of her first client's phone

BuffaloGrid in Bangalore - Technological capital of India

"The telecom sector in India has witnessed unparalleled growth by global standards in the last decade and continues to be one of India’s biggest success stories. The Indian mobile industry is one of the largest markets today in terms of subscriber base, experiencing growth of an additional 10 million subscribers every month"*

From the 650 million off-grid phones in the world 300 of them are in India, a massive business opportunity for BuffaloGrid!

We are now in Bangalore with back to back meetings with key players in this landscape!

We will keep you posted!

*Source: GSMA Report - Telecoms Renewable Energy Vendors/ESCOs Landscape in India

Image: Infosys campus in Bangalore

BuffaloGrid in India

BuffaloGrid is extremely happy to be part of the Webmission 2013 in India!!

"Sixteen of the UK’s most promising digital, wireless and mobile software technology companies are on an entrepreneur-led mission to Bangalore and New Delhi with the aim of opening up their business to the Indian market."

http://webmission.com/the-mission/

Selected by the UK trade Investment and Technology Strategy Board, BuffaloGrid is now in Bangalore establishing partnerships to introduce our technology to the off grid ares of India!

Successful trials in Uganda

Phenomenal reception of our trials in the rural villages around Mount Elgon in Uganda!!

We will soon upload a full report. Keep an eye on our website!

Buffalo on tour :)

Well, it's official, our second trial is almost upon us. The Buffalo team will be headed out to Mbale on the 27th of January for a three week fact-finding mission and test of our latest developments. We can't share too much right now, but if you are in Mbale during that period let us know and come say Hi!

What we can say is that we are VERY excited by recent developments and we're looking forward to sharing them with you soon

Buffalo has a new member!

We're delighted to be joined by Cambridge University undergraduate Ed Bentley for a four week internship. Ed will be working on some top-secret research for the team, bringing to bear his engineering skills and meticulous tenacity in solving problems.

Buffalo has moved to its new home

Buffalo has moved to its new home, South of the river.

Sir James Dyson, the inventor and entrepreneur, has pledged a record £5m to the Royal College of Art in the hope that a new generation will rediscover the nation's talent for "making things".

As part of the Innovation RCA incubator, Buffalo will now be operating from the brand new Dyson building and we are looking forward to settling in and carrying on with our work.

The Dyson Building - Buffalo's new home!

Buffalo secures angel investment

Buffalo is pleased to announce that it has extended its funding base to allow for further research and development through a generous private investment group. This will be used to prototype and trial new units as well as researching new off-grid technologies in the Buffalo laboratory.

We look forward to sharing the results of this with you as soon as we are able to!

Buffalo is selected by InnovationRCA

Today, Buffalo has made its latest step towards full-scale production by securing public investment from InnovationRCA. Backed by NESTA and the James Dyson Innovation Fellowship, InnovationRCA develops interdisciplinary start-up ventures in a self-sustaining manner.

Buffalo are delighted to have been invited to join the InnovationRCA business incubator, having passed a rigorous and competitive selection process involving dozens of candidates. This investment allows Buffalo to take their research findings forward in the next design iteration and explore new opportunities for off-grid power.

Ghana Trial

Ghana, like many other parts of Africa has been changed by mobile phones. Millions of mobile phones and billions of airtime minutes are just the start of the African tech revolution. Mobile phones are transitioning the cash based economy of these nations to a m-banking economy and are offering new health services and farming services. Mobile phones are improving life in Africa at many levels. 

The Buffalo prototype is adjusted in Tamale, Ghana

But the same problem remains; electricity supply is the biggest infrastructure challenge in Ghana and while mobile phone penetration is increasing by the day the electrical infrastructure is delayed by decades.

A crippling energy crisis that began in 2006 in Ghana, leading to the rationing of power supplies to all consumers with cuts of 25% in electricity production. The economic cost of the crisis was also a setback for the government; both the World Bank and independent analysts place the cost of the crisis at between 0.7% and 0.9% of GDP. Although power-rationing has ended, unannounced electricity outages are common and a large proportion of the country lacks access to grid power all together. 

Zelia puts a trial bicycle unit through its paces - we now use solar

The initial trials demonstrated huge demand for Buffalo’s solution. They also provided very valuable market research and insight. Buffalo’s development team is now optimising our solution so we can look to roll out a much wider programme in the near future - part of building a fully scalable model that will change many millions of lives.

Uganda Trial 2011

In Spring 2011, the Buffalo research team spent two weeks in Uganda testing early prototypes of the Buffalo charging station. This was followed by a further two weeks of research in Ghana. Our first concepts used a bicycle, but we now use solar.

Our first concepts used bicycle chargers, but we changed to solar

In Uganda only 4% of its territory is covered by grid electricity and even in those places with access to the grid people have generators, as this grid power is quite unreliable. There is a large mobile phone penetration across the whole economic pyramid and many people have more than one phone, swapping from sim card to sim card according to their needs. People with really low income, living from the land in remote villages would rely on their phones to sell their crops and in more personal ways, people would give each other “miscalls” as a way of saying “Hi, thinking of you”.

Uganda suffers from serious unemployment and local newspaper "The Monitor" claims that for every 400 000 youngsters at working age, there are only 8 000 jobs available.

Buffalo customers in Bungokho Village, Uganda

Uganda represented the perfect environment for the Buffalo Unit to start to make a difference. The unit is not only a source of power, it is a source of income and employment to the small entrepreneur. There proved to be a lot of interest in the product from the locals who wanted to start a business with it. In addition, micro-finance institution understood and appreciated its potential.