By Rachel McManus | Country Director
The end of 2013 was an exciting time for the EarthSpark team, and we have ambitious plans for 2014.
In December, USAID announced EarthSpark a winner of Powering Agriculture: an Energy Grand Challenge for Development. This grant will help us expand our current microgrid in Les Anglais from 54 to 500 customers during the summer of 2014. The grid will expand into a full town-sized solarized smart grid, expanding use of SparkMeter smart metering technology to offer affordable pre-pay energy services.
We will also use this funding to explore and promote clean energy technologies to process agricultural goods in the area. Not only will this help current agribusiness entrepreneurs upgrade their equipment from dirty, diesel-powered machinery to machinery powered electrically by the EarthSpark Les Anglais solar hybrid microgrid, but it will open up new possibilities for agricultural processing in the area. When electricity is brought to an area, opportunities for agricultural processing increase, unlocking agricultural wealth in an area where nutritious foods would often rot for want of processing.
On the clean energy retail side, we have been busy expanding and improving our network of Retailers and wholesale Agents. We will soon be rolling out our 17 Triggers marketing materials with a series of Retailer trainings in 10 cities around Haiti by the end of 2014. Each Retailer will receive an innovative toolkit of sales and marketing materials geared towards increasing sales and educating customers to increase energy literacy. With this kit, we hope to train 260 new and current Retailers and expand the Enèji Pwòp brand into 3 more Departments in Haiti.
We’ve been working hard over the past few months to increase energy access in Haiti through innovative and sustainable solutions. To get a picture of what we’re up against, have a look at this video highlighting the disparities in access to energy services over the years in the region. (Hint: watch Haiti.) Our work is to change the trend of low energy access.
Thank you for your continuing support as we enter into this new year with ambitious plans. We couldn’t do what we do without you!
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