Meet the 2019 global finalists
About the global finalists
The global finalists represent innovative solutions to electricity access that are holistic, regionally relevant, and have the ability to scale. Explore their solutions below.
Africa regional
Simusolar
Africa
1A Track Prize
Simusolar provides farmers and fishers with the IoT-enabled tools they need to improve productivity and income.
Electriciens sans frontières
Africa
2B Track Prize
Café Lumière is a multi-services energy platform providing universal access to electricity for rural communities.
Nanoé
Africa
Grand Regional Prize
Lateral electrification: Towards a bottom-up smart power infrastructure development path for Africa
Americas regional
Reeddi
Americas
1B Track Prize
Reeddi sustainably provides clean energy and allied innovations at a price point that individuals and businesses operating in energy-poor regions of the world can afford.
Winnie the Power – UManitoba
Americas
Best Student Team
Group of highly motivated Grad-Students from University of Manitoba, Renewable-energy Interface and Grid Automation (RIGA) laboratory come with Cube+, a solar home system module with flexible expandability from a single unit to a whole community network.
Xpower Inc.
Americas
Grand Regional Prize
Xpower designs, builds and operates next generation solar microgrids for rural electrification. Combining mains AC and low voltage DC, these grids are optimised for cost, yet designed to scale with users’ needs over time.
SolChill
Americas
2B Track Prize
Perryman’s internationally seasoned team of technology entrepreneurs has developed a containerized solar thermal energy collection & storage system that can be up & running in two hours; charging night and day, the system co-produces water, thermal refrigeration & electric, while supporting remote learning to empower poor villages to prosper economically.
Europe regional
Baobab+
Europe
1A Track Prize
Baobab+ offers a progressive path for rural customers to access Tier-2 energy and productive appliances. Our business model is unique to the off-grid and African market, due to exclusive distribution agreements and various partnerships, including with the Baobab Group, a leading microfinance institution. Once our customers are equipped with clean and reliable energy, then can benefit from financial and digital inclusion.
SolarWorX
Europe
2B Track Prize
SolarWorX is a Berlin-based start-up, designing and manufacturing the next generation of solar pay-as-you-go solutions sold on a B2B basis to distribution partners across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Our state-of-the-art technology is specifically designed to the challenging needs of the 1.4 billion people worldwide still living without access to energy. Our innovative modular system not only provides off-grid households with electricity and light, but is proactively enabling off grid communities to use energy productively and generate additional income.
ConneX Solar
Europe
Best Student Team
ConneX Solar at the University of Strathclyde is a group of students developing plug-and-play smart DC network controllers for a bottom-up electrification in the Developing World.
Solaris Offgrid
Europe
1B Track Prize
Solaris Offgrid designs Pay-As-You-Go solutions to foster affordable and sustainable energy access in off-grid areas.
Pacific Asia regional
APOLLO
Pacific Asia
1B Track Prize
Apollo provides electricity access using modularized PV and monitoring devices for any agricultural technology that can improve the livelihood, productivity, harvest quality, and quantity, and optimize the earning of farmers.
Solageo
Pacific Asia
1A Track Prize
Solageo provides women and their households with sustainable and inclusive access to safe water and clean energy for healthier and more productive livelihoods.
Entrepreneurs du Monde
Pacific Asia
Grand Regional Prize
Entrepreneurs du Monde is an International NGO created in 1998 with the objective to tackle extreme poverty by supporting people’s own entrepreneurial ventures and giving them access to products that can bring significant health, economic and environmental benefits.
Dream Grid
Pacific Asia
Best Student Team
The Dream Grid is a group providing photovoltaic power generation system for families with essential electricity equipment in solar-covered areas.
FDU_Lighting Up
Pacific Asia
2A Track Prize
An interdisciplinary student team from Fudan University who wants to “light up” the power-poverty area in a sustainable, demand-oriented and inside-to-outside development way.
Green Spark
Pacific Asia
2B Track Prize
Team GreenSpark combining multi-disciplinary background, focusing on the power shortage in sub-Saharan Africa, innovatively designed the operation mode of ” distributed power generation in farmland — centralized power storage in public space — fragmented power supply by batteries”, and formulated the corresponding system model of “points exchanging for power”
South Asia regional
SoULS Initiative, IIT Bombay
South Asia
Grand Regional Prize
Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability
AgroHub – climate smart agro-services
South Asia
2B Track Prize
a pay-as-you-go service based business model that aims to provide access to solar-powered infrastructure for remote underserved farming communities
Cygni Energy
South Asia
2A Track Prize
Cygni Energy envisions to power rural household with its innovative Solar DC and DC micro grid based solutions, making energy efficient and economical.
Bombay Bijlee
South Asia
1B Track Prize
Our vision is to help rural households realise their dreams by providing customised and energy efficient energy products on easy payment terms while providing state of art automated after sales service.