Powering the Resilient Energy Future: Why We’re Excited About Popular Power
Nearly 770 million people still lack access to electricity, while climate change is pushing our existing energy systems to the brink. Solar energy may offer a sustainable and resilient solution, but we need to ensure we can tap into its full potential and make it accessible and affordable to the most underserved. This is where Popular Power comes in.
The Market Need
Access to reliable, affordable, and clean electricity remains a significant challenge worldwide. Though the number of people without electricity has declined from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 770 million in 2022, significant gaps persist. And climate-related weather events are increasingly impacting power supply and demand, challenging system reliability. In 2021, 350 million people experienced major power outages, especially those living in emerging markets . Examples of the negative impacts of climate events on energy supply are numerous. Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico without power for 60 days. Heat waves in Brazil and Argentina have caused power loss for 1.75 million people. Droughts in Brazil, Central America, and Mexico, which heavily rely on hydroelectric power, have led to price rises and frequent outages. Honduras has faced severe energy rationing due to low water levels, causing outages lasting up to eight hours a day.
Solar energy is increasingly becoming a sustainable, renewable alternative, offering stable, affordable, clean, and consistent power that contributes to a more resilient energy system. As a result of solar’s promise, electrification through decentralized solar-based solutions is gaining momentum. The number of people connected to mini-grids more than doubled between 2010 and 2019, growing from 5 to 11 million, and it’s estimated that around 20% of the world’s electricity will be generated from distributed solar solutions by 2030.
Most growth in emerging markets is driven by small- and medium-sized informal solar installation businesses. These businesses often lack efficient processes, facing several barriers to increasing solar adoption among end users. For example, most solar businesses rely on multiple different hardware brands to tailor to the needs of each customer, and communication systems between various brand devices are lacking, creating data silos that make troubleshooting and customer service inefficient.
Additionally, manual reporting and invoicing, personnel management, and poor project analytics are creating hurdles for the industry and introducing efficiency constraints that are capping the rate of portfolio growth for solar businesses, despite rising demand. While solar has the potential to address key energy challenges posed by climate change and grid underinvestment, it is not yet reaching its full potential. The lack of appropriate tools for solar businesses to optimally reach and support underserved households and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains a critical barrier.
The Solution
Popular Power offers a transformative solution. It is an “all-in-one” software platform that integrates all tasks, hardware brands, and customer profiles into a single platform with actionable dashboards and insights. This allows solar operators to automate the monitoring and management of their portfolios of assets, customers, and technicians in real time.
Popular Power was founded by Manuel Wiechers and Morgan Babbs, seasoned solar operators with decades of experience in off-grid solar markets. They have firsthand experience with the challenges of providing reliable energy in underserved areas and developing solutions to overcome these obstacles. Having worked together for half a decade, Wiechers and Babbs have launched successful off-grid solar power installation companies in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and on tribal reservations in the U.S. Their deep understanding of the industry’s inefficiencies inspired them to create Popular Power as a scalable, one-stop solution to solve post-installation inefficiencies, interoperability, and asset monitoring and servicing.
Popular Power sells its solution via a subscription model. With less than a year in operation, they already have great traction, monitoring more than 36 megawatts in installed capacity across 8,000 solar sites distributed among companies operating across five countries. And they are achieving impressive double-digit monthly growth. They have not experienced any customer churn, and user feedback has been highly positive, highlighting the strong value proposition:
- The only affordable, user-centered, and interoperable multi-hardware platform for emerging markets with proven results
- Increases efficiency and speed in troubleshooting hardware issues and identifying them before they arise, eliminating time spent checking 5–10 different web portals to identify problems and reducing downtimes from weeks and days to hours
- Automates problem detection and response, doubling number of cases staff are able to respond to within three days while increasing technicians efficiency by 2–3x
- Increases installation speeds by reducing the time for pre-installation site prep by 75%
- Increases customer’s revenue by a minimum of 5% by avoiding penalties for downtime, and by facilitating billing, collections, and upselling opportunities
“We are delighted to have MCV as one of our pre-seed investors, as they will push us to continuously think about enabling companies to scale solar deployment for the mass market with a critical view at environmental impact and DEI in the solar sector.” — Manuel Wiechers, Popular Power co-founder.
“We tested out generic platforms and were swamped by manual processes before arriving to PP, and they have since then helped us be more productive by reducing time spent on manual reports so we can focus on deployment and strategy.” — Popular Power user.
“Our ability to respond to customer service requests was reduced from three days to a single day since implementing PP’s monitoring and alerts solution.” — Popular Power user.
“We could manage 80 installations manually, but can’t reach our goal of 500+ installations without a solution like Popular Power.” Popular Power user.
This innovative approach positions Popular Power to thrive in the rapidly growing solar energy market. Solar energy is the fastest-growing source of electricity worldwide, expected to increase from 4% to over one-third of global electricity generation. According to CRE, in Latin America, the solar market is growing 20% annually, with Mexico seeing 70,000 new solar plants installed each year and a growing industry of 8,000 unique installation and development companies. The global market for solar software in which Popular Power operates is around $40 billion and is expected to reach $22 billion by 2032.
Investment Rationale
Popular Power aligns with our focus on climate-smart technologies. The solution enables solar operators to manage their operations more effectively and better serve their users, reducing downtime while offering real-time insights to enhance the service experience, providing access to reliable, affordable, and clean energy. Popular Power’s solution also enhances end users’ resilience to climate-induced power disruptions, ensuring communities stay powered even in the most adverse conditions.
Popular Power’s innovative approach, commitment to ensuring the clean energy revolution does not leave underserved users behind, and alignment with our climate adaptation and resilient solutions thesis make them a valuable addition to Mercy Corps Ventures’ portfolio. We are excited to support their journey and witness the transformative impact they will have on communities and SMEs around the world.
