About Powering Agriculture
Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development supports the development and deployment of clean energy innovations that increase agriculture productivity and stimulate low carbon economic growth in the agriculture sector of developing countries to help end extreme poverty and extreme hunger.
An electricity meter remains affixed to one of the few intact elements of a microgrid customer's home in Les Anglais. Photo: EarthSpark
EarthSpark International’s work in Les Anglais was significantly disrupted by Hurricane Matthew’s impact. Approximately 90 people were killed in the storm, and many more lost their homes. The grid itself fared comparatively well, but since most of the customers connected to it lost their homes, the distribution system will need to be completely reconstructed once new homes are built.
EarthSpark is hard at work preparing to power these homes and local businesses again once the community rebuilds. You can read more about their experiences during and after Hurricane Matthew at their blog.
Microgrids, like the one built by EarthSpark in Haiti, are more storm-resilient; they don't transmit power long distances over storm-vulnerable wire. Rebuilding in Puerto Rico offers a chance build a grid that's less centralized, decreasing the chance for widespread, long-term outages after a storm.
Congratulations to SunCulture, Futurepump, Husk Power Systems and EarthSpark's offshoot, SparkMeter—they've all been identified by the London Stock Exchange Group as being among Africa’s most inspiring small & medium-sized enterprises!
