RiseUp +Sopowerful Foundation Bring Solar to the Kudziwa Center for Knowledge
“I’m excited to see the impact we can make with solar power by enabling education, the basis for every child’s future. We’re very proud to support the precious work of RiseUp Malawi, through the reliable power that is generated by this solar plus storage system. Thank you Megan, Hudson and team for this great cooperation!”
Why Solar?
The primary justification for solar in Malawi is that Malawi’s current energy sector is unreliable and insufficient and not able to meet a growing demand. Environmental considerations as well as suspected corruption within the country’s state owned distribution company (ESCOM) only worsen the power situation. Here we look at each of these in more detail:
Rapid population growth: According to UNICEF, the child population in Malawi is predicted to double from 9 million now to 18 million in 2030, significantly affecting Malawi's ability to meet basic health, education, agriculture, and economic needs. This rapid growth will undoubtedly put even more stress on the energy sector.
Climate change: As water continues to drop at hydro plants across the country due to seasonal dry spells, ESCOM is falling short of its need to operate turbines at their full capacity. Consequently, as electrical supply decreases, customers are turning to wood for fuel, exacerbating deforestation, air pollution & soil erosion.
Corruption within ESCOM: A 2015/2016 enterprise baseline survey, commissioned by the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA-Malawi), revealed a general perception that ESCOM members of staff are corrupt and only respond to companies and individuals that bribe them. Although this is hard to confirm, it has been noted that during the prior presidential term, the RiseUp community suffered from weekly outages, with power going off every Thursday for 12+ hours. We suspect corruption played a role in these outages.
While Malawi’s overburdened energy sector is the greatest justification for alternative energy sources like solar, there are a few more added benefits to investing in solar in the long-term. These include:
Solar power is a decentralized source of energy, eliminating the need for dependence on power plants far away.
Solar power is clean, with no emissions or pollution.
Solar power is low maintenance which means low operating expenses over a lifetime.
To summarize, installing complete solar capability will allow our center to function completely independently and off the grid and therefore not be subject to outages and other challenges facing Malawi’s energy sector now and in the years ahead.
The Partnership
During 2020, we partnered with SoPowerful Foundation to install a fully independent solar system for our new building The Kudziwa Center for Knowledge in Mangochi, Malawi. The Kudziwa Center for Knowledge is a 2,200 sq. ft. building built out of sustainable ISSB blocks that will house our growing educational programs and serve as a community space for other income generating activities. A system of 8 solar panels along with 3 batteries has been installed to provide solar power for indoor lighting, charging computers and phones, fans, and larger appliances such as a refrigerator for medical clinics or other hosted/rental events down the road.
Sopowerful foundation was established in 2019 as a registered foundation in the Netherlands (RSIN 8607.69.483) Sopowerful's mission is to unlock the potential of solar power ‘where it matters most’: to address needs of people on this planet who live at the very base of the pyramid. Through a pragmatic approach to the SDG7 (the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), Sopowerful foundation makes an impact in the areas of Healthcare, Education and Access to Water. The foundation partners with local contractors for implementation and maintenance of the solar power systems.
Learn more at sopowerful.org // Instagram @sopowerful.foundation // facebook.com/sopowerfulfoundation
