Indian companies win Solar for All contest for innovative community solar electrification solutions

The Canopus Foundation and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, who collaboratively organized the 2^nd Solar for All Contest for Innovative Community Solar Electrification Solutions 2016, on 19^th October, had announced the winners.

For the past nine months, Solar for All was running the Contest to find the best innovations in providing rural low income communities in remote regions without access to energy with affordable and clean solutions, focusing on scalability, technical standards and a developed market approach. The Award Ceremony took place in Mumbai and was hosted by Intersolar India.

“Several very interesting projects have been running for this year’s Solar for All Contest and we are very pleased that the two winners of the first prize are from India, a country which itself is affected by low energy access and which is an appropriate location for this prize ceremony”, said Prof. Eicke Weber, Jury Member and Director of Europe’s largest solar energy research center, Fraunhofer ISE.

During a second meeting of the Solar for All Jury in Mumbai, the four finalists presented their projects. From a number of high-quality submissions from mostly Subsaharan Africa, South Asia and Oceania, India’s Boond Engineering and Mera Gao Power have been awarded the first prize of the Solar for All Contest 2016, both receiving a 200,000 Euro loan for 8 years at 6 percent interest and no collateral required.

A crowd funding campaign has been launched by bettervest GmbH to raise the prize money on www.bettervest.com.

Marilyn Heib, Co-Founder at bettervest, was quite impressed: “Every finalist we saw today is a winner, because they do the basework for change in the world. Today we have decided to award two outstanding companies with the first prize.”

Devergy receives a Special Prize of 10,000 Euros from the Siemens Stiftung and a membership offer for Siemens’ international support program “empowering people. Network”.

Rolf Huber, Director at the Siemens Stiftung said that Devergy convinced us through their holistic model including technical, financial and social impact goals.

Village Infrastructure Angels has been offered coaching with bettervest for the possibility to enter a crowd funding campaign on their platform.

Release: Fraunhofer