Silfab Solar supports in Circadian Energy Project.

How Silfab is supporting energy decentralization in Sub Saharan Africa: Tony, a student from the University of Waterloo and a member of the Circadian Energy project, shares first steps with us.

The technology to provide electricity to every person on the planet exists. The problem is the current framework for power generation does not work in developing regions of Africa. Large centralized power plants are slow to build and incredibly expensive. Furthermore, Africa’s energy future is intertwined with the development of renewables; the current grid architecture was not designed for this level of dispersion, some other approach is needed.

Thanks to the plummeting cost of photovoltaic, batteries, and integrated circuits, we invite you to re-imagine how the energy grid could look.

The answer is a decentralized energy sharing network allowing businesses and homes to share energy stored and generated throughout their own communities. The grid will develop organically, finally resulting in a fully-connected network spanning countries.

We are proposing a platform that does just that. A hardware unit that gives each home and business the four basic functionalities of the energy network. Our individual units will allow users to efficiently integrate their energy generation, storage devices, and personal usage. These nodal units will connect to neighboring units allowing real-time peer-to-peer energy sharing.

This system brings three distinct advantages:

Firstly, it integrates with and manages existing technologies for greater efficiency. Secondly, peak loads are balanced across the network, pooling the risk associated with renewable technologies. And finally, it opens the opportunity for peer-to-peer sharing and sales. A business could invest in a solar panel, batteries and our system. Now, not only are they able to use the energy they generate but they have the option of selling the excess to their neighbors. Alternatively, an impoverished family unable to afford a solar panel can purchase just the unit and be able to have lights that night.

The reason this solution is so powerful is that it incentivizes communities to invest in their own energy future.

We believe our scalable and affordable system will be able to meet the demands where previous attempts have failed. We are Circadian energy and we are going to improve the lives of over 10 million people by 2025.