Empowering University Students with Renewable Energy

Silfab is empowering university students to bring a reliable source of renewable energy to these communities by developing a low-cost energy ‘hub’ for each individual household.

Currently, over 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to reliable energy, and it is costing them 2% of their economic growth annually. We wish to bring a reliable source of renewable energy to these communities by developing a low-cost energy ‘hub’ for each individual household.

Each hub has the capabilities to connect to energy generation (primarily solar panels), energy storage (primarily batteries), and energy appliances. Circadian Energy would like to build a solution for each hub will be able to sustain the energy demands of the household, whether it is two light bulbs or an electric stove and TV.

“Our idea aims to improve the world we live in today by bringing energy to developing nations who are crippled by the lack of sustainable energy. By providing individual household the power to harness solar power, they are no longer solely dependent on the reliable national grids for their energy sources.” – Shiran Qu

This project is completed as a requirement of the Mechatronics Engineering program at the University of Waterloo. The purpose of this project is for Engineering students to demonstrate their engineering capabilities in their fourth year of study by developing a product that tackles a need in the world.

The specific purpose of our project is to develop a solution which brings energy to the 600 million in Sub-Saharan Africa without reliable power. The main purpose of this project is to bring energy to these communities, enabling education, healthcare, clean water, economic opportunities, and much more.

Silfab decided to support their project by supplying Solar Panels to these Students of the University of Waterloo.

“It is always a sign of hope to see students trying to apply their creativity in doing what is good, given Slfab’s purpose to make a difference in the world by reducing carbon emissions and improving access to clean energy with every module we make, no project is too small or too large, if it can foster the purpose”