With 2019 coming to an end, we have only 10 years left to build more than 200,000 mini-grids in Africa and Asia. To achieve that kind of growth, we need a toolbox of scalable technologies to improve the planning and operations of mini-grids at scale.
Our Village Data Analytics (VIDA) is one of the key tools in the box: It helps find and prioritize these 200,000 sites. It uses large scale satellite imagery analysis, vast on-ground socio-economic data and machine learning to find and prioritize villages. In plain English, give us an area of your choice and we help you find the best villages to go and build your mini-grid.
That has been our vision since we’ve started our VIDA journey back in 2018 with generous support from the European Space Agency (ESA). Over the last 20 months (and our earlier years in the field), we’ve learned much about the art of selecting good sites for mini-grids; we have built and tested VIDA in Nigeria and India. Now (to keep things real and close to the ground), we have teamed up with leading mini-grid developers and off-grid solar companies to deploy VIDA in different countries.
Needless to say, there’s a lot of work left to be done and we are excited to steam ahead and launch the next phase. But for now, we want to thank all who have helped us bring VIDA to life: The rich feedback and insights we have received from the good people working in energy access and the willingness of many developers to share data with us is further proof of the collaborative spirit in the sector as it is searching for new ways to bring affordable, quality energy access to millions of people.
We are thrilled about 2020 and will hopefully start the year with some exciting announcements. Stay tuned.
