Douala, Cameroon, June 24th 2020 – Solarworx has entered into a partnership with Solkamtech bundling solar home systems with modern cooking solutions for off-grid households in Northern Cameroon as part of the USAID/Power Africa grant scheme. With destination port of Doula a container loaded with Solarworx products was finally consigned this week and Felix Boldt, CEO of Solarworx, is pleased to announce that the project is now about to kick off.
“Being part of the USAID/Power Africa grant scheme supporting Solkamtech and rural Cameroons with state-of-the-art solar home systems is an exciting opportunity for us. Combining our solutions with clean cooking is a smart, wholistic approach to off-grid energy needs. It not only substitutes diesel gensets and kerosene lamps but also charcoal stoves, that cause respiratory diseases and deforestation. Next to two Kenyan companies we are proud that Serge and his team were able to secure the grant for the Cameroonian market.” – Felix Boldt, CEO Solarworx
Serge Bukam is founder and managing director of Solkamtech, a Cameroonian solar company which has recently been awarded the USAID/Power Africa grant. A total of $550,000 have been earmarked to test and scale promising solutions for the coordinated delivery of solar home systems (SHS) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cooking solutions to off-grid households and businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the World Energy Outlook 2016 Cameroon´s yearly average electricity consumption is at 281 kWh per capita compared to a global average of 3000 kWh. In rural areas 17% of the population have access to electricity. Compensating their energy poverty with fossil fuels, rural households are used to have high energy costs. Bundling SHSs with LPG cooking solutions will significantly improve the quality of energy supply, health and safety and reduce the energy bill on household level.
In close collaboration with Solarworx, Serge and his team on the ground are aiming to provide a tailored energy bundle to households and small businesses in Northern Cameroon. Focus customers for the SHS/LPG bundles are female entrepreneurs.
About Solkamtech:
Solkamtech SARL was founded by Serge Bukam. After completing his environmental engineering studies at HTW Berlin, Germany he returned to Cameroon support by the German government ZIM programme to build the very first solar minigrid. Since then his company has expanded rapidly and is recognized as one of the leading solar energy consultants in the country, with a long track record of projects. Solkamtech is nowadays focusing on the deployment of minigrids and PAYGO solar home systems in the Northern Provinces.
About Solarworx:
Solarworx is a Berlin-based start-up, designing and manufacturing the next generation of solar pay-as-you-go solutions. Our state-of-the-art technology is specifically designed to the challenging needs of the 1.2 billion people worldwide still living without access to energy. Our innovative modular system not only provides off-grid households with electricity and light, but is proactively enabling off grid communities to use energy productively and generate additional income.
About Power Africa:
Power Africa is a U.S. government-led partnership that brings together the collective resources of over 170 public and private sector partners to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Power Africa’s goal is to add more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections by 2030. For more information, visit www.usaid.gov/powerafrica
