What an incredible week in Barcelona – so much innovation presented, new contacts made and plans already in progress for next year! Green Power for Mobile and Community Power from Mobile certainly came away with many actions points and food for thought on how to move our programmes forward. In the year Ban Ki-Moon announced the International Year of Sustainability for All (SEFA), the team showcased the aims of our energy programmes aligning to the goals of SEFA.
As well as our seminar event, this year we hosted 4 small focus group sessions. These sessions were well attended, great discussions were had and we would like to share with you some of the themes that emerged.
1. Smart Solutions for Utility Access:
Quote of the Week: “More people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet”
- Attended by a range of operators, vendors, NGOs and financiers. Michael Nique presented the challenges and impacts of smart access for both energy and clean water to the Service Provider.
- 2.7bn people live without access to clean energy and 2.8bn don’t have access to fresh water: there is an opportunity to provide smart access where mobile penetration is high and leverage the strength of mobile technologies in these areas.
- Case Study: Grundfos, Kenya – where the M-Pesa platform is used to top up for water credits which they can use to get clean water from a community water pump. There are 20 of these initiatives in Kenya.
2. Funding Innovation:
- Attended by a range of donors and financiers, operators and ESCos. Charlotte Ward introduced Energy+Mobile (including the Community Power from Mobile business models) and the challenges to growing this innovative and young sector.
- Our panellists presented their experiences and perspectives on funding the mobile and development sector specifically related to off-grid energy access:
- Ms. Yicui Sun, Investment Manager, International Finance Corporation
- Mr. Bernard Fernandes, CTO, Econet Wireless
- Mr. Mike Lin, CEO, Fenix International
- Mr. B. S. Shantharaju, CEO, Indus Towers
- Mr. Michel Mansard, MD of Phaesun and representing the Alliance for Rural Electrification
- Key themes emerging from the discussions highlighted:
- The need for further scoping of the investment requirements and emerging opportunities in greening mobile and community power.
- The development of inventive financing mechanisms that allow for commercial innovations to advance at the speed and scale demanded by the mobile industry, whilst providing sustainable development outcomes.
3. Community Power from Mobile Feasibility Studies
- Attended by operators. Abi Birrell and Charlotte Ward presented an overview of Community Power from Mobile and an introduction to the proposed feasibility study offering
- Three questions were posed following this discussion and the themes that emerged highlighted:
- The need for designing feasibility studies that match the appetite and requirements of each operator in their markets
- The need to clearly segment all aspects of business models servicing the mobile operator and the community
4. Barriers to Handset Charging
- This session followed the Feasibility Study session attended by the same group with the addition of a number of ESCos
- A short presentation from Michael Nique and Mary Roach was given highlighting the issues at present
- Following this, the floor was handed to the ESCos and Operators for a speed dating session where they had the opportunity to network.
On Tuesday afternoon, Green Power for Mobile and Community Power from Mobile presented Energy+Mobile to a packed seminar theatre. With energy being the backbone of the mobile industry, our panel discussed energy access in emerging markets and how mobile operators have become proficient at operating in areas of unreliable and non-existent grid electricity. Moderated by GSMA’s Mobile Energy Efficiency Programme Director, David Sanders, our panellists included:
- DS Rawat – CEO at Bharti Infratel
- Marco Signorini – CEO at Econet Solar
- Maarten Boute – CEO at Digicel Haiti
The keys themes that emerged from these sessions included:
- For greening towers and making them more energy efficient, Free Cooling is the easiest option for energy savings in the mobile industry and enhances the ability to use renewable energy
- A win:win situation needs to be created for tower companies and renewable ESCos to enable the ecosystem to grow and to allow slow increments of scale
- It is important to co-design solutions with local SMEs to solve energy issues as they will have better knowledge of the requirements and as a result ability to provide better solutions
- Subscriber access to phone charging is gaining priority with an increasing focus on the area by MNOs and ESCos; innovative solutions are being trialled
We look forward to continuing discussions at our next Working Groups for India in Delhi (sponsored by COAI) on 13th April 2012 and for Africa and the Middle East in Doha (sponsored by QTEL Group) on 18th – 19th April 2012.