Solar Cloudgrid Project

The problem we are striving to address is energy poverty and the social issues emanating from that deficit. As the Philippines is an archipelago consisting of 7641 islands, some of which are remote and difficult to reach, there are close to 2.4 million Filipino households (or 13 million Filipinos) without access to electricity as the cost of connecting remote and underserved areas to the national electrical grid can be prohibitive. This situation has led to families resorting to hazardous and pollutive alternatives for electricity such as diesel/gasoline-powered generators, candles, or kerosene lamps. We aim to reduce carbon emissions, help mitigate the climate crisis and empower the underprivileged off-the-grid communities through the use of clean renewable energy technologies to accelerate the transition to clean renewable energy. The energy deficit hinders economic development, limits educational opportunities, and adversely impacts the health and quality of life of these communities. Our company recognizes this pressing challenge and seeks to be a catalyst for change by offering a simple, scalable, safe, and sustainable energy alternative.

seforall.org/system/files/2019-12/Taking-Pulse-Philippines.pdf

Our company designs and develops a product that utilizes solar power and energy storage to provide sustainable, affordable, and inclusive electricity to households in the Philippines. Our Cloudgrid Solar kit includes 1 solar panel, 1 energy storage box, 2 LED bulbs, 4 USB ports for mobile charging, 4 sockets for 12V and optional (ceiling fan). It has a simple plug-and-play design which is easy to install in remote communities, and the build design is low cost, efficient and modular. The batteries are fully-recyclable and can be repurposed for further use, and the product is scalable as we use readily available materials and easy to build.

Our service covers deployment to maintenance of the systems, making it a comprehensive and clean energy solution for off-the-grid communities. We offer a Subscription as a Service model for these solar powered units that provide energy for lighting, mobile phone and small appliances charging.  Customers pay a monthly subscription of USD 6 which includes maintenance, repairs and replacement costs. This is a very affordable proposition compared to the cost of alternatives amounting up to USD30/ month that is spent by families on gasoline and mobile phone charging.

Our key differentiator is that we focus primarily on impact and sustainability where profit acts as a key lever to deliver greater impact for the underserved communities in the long run. The product that we have developed is not entirely unique, but our operating model is unique in that we truly believe in being hands-on and engage deeply with communities on the ground to understand their challenges and needs. We aim to build long-term partnerships by ensuring long-term, reliable and ongoing support to the communities, such as creating micro-business opportunities, developing capacity-building programs and improving the products and services that we provide by ensuring timely and reliable maintenance and repairs. We have developed a program to scale up operations by training local community members to become technicians and outreach managers who are paid a monthly income. Beneficiaries of the communities also benefit from micro-business opportunities to charge other community members who are earning less than USD2/ day to use their solar home units to charge their mobile phones at a much lower cost than relying on suppliers using diesel generators. 

Our target customer are off-the-grid, underserved remote island communities in Cebu, Bohol and Mindanao in the Philippines. These customers are looking for cleaner and sustainable energy alternatives to replace hazardous diesel/gasoline-powered generators, candles, or kerosene lamps.  They value a renewable and sustainable source of energy utilising solar panels and battery storage which are easily installed in their homes. This solution also saves our customers time traveling by boat (often up to 2-3 hours round trip) to the main island to buy gasoline and kerosene, therefore increasing the possibility to earn more income with the increase in productive time. The household income of these communities are less than USD 5/ day. The income earners are mainly fisherfolks, contract construction workers, vendors and many of them do not have a stable income due to the nature of their jobs (seasonal or climate-

Our team has the right people to design and deliver this solution as our skills sets & experiences complement one another perfectly. More importantly, we are all bound by the passion to serve the underprivileged and to solve real life challenges brought about by energy poverty. Our Mission is All about Life, and affordable energy is key to supporting livelihoods and economic development in the underserved communities. Jovie Gil Montajes (co-founder) has 15+ years building Electronic Tech for Good, is a passionate clean energy advocate with a background in Electronics and communications Engineering. Born in a poor family in the province, he has personally experienced using kerosene wick lamps to study at night. Nonetheless, he has persevered through much adversity and challenges to graduate in Engineering, worked at a US Corporate Printer company as World Wide Level 3 Technical Expert for 8 years, and is now determined to work to improve the lives of the underprivileged communities. Hilda Sin (co-founder) has 20+ years of experience in banking and consulting in Asia Pacific and the US. She has held senior and advisory roles in a clean tech startup, a private sector financial advisory role at UNDP, and spearheaded a Global Business Intelligence function at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). She is passionate about advocating and driving systemic change with mission-driven organizations, and has the expertise to drive, manage, report our environmental and social impact in our fund-raising efforts.

To date, we have deployed 336 solar cloudgrid units to date across 5 communities and will further deploy another 1000 units from 2024 to 2025. Through an affordable subscription fee of only Php10 a day, family beneficiaries will gain access to clean energy. Based on the community and user feedback, we have been iterating and improving the product build features and functionalities and the latest product we have is version 9.1

Building on our initial pilot success in deploying 336 solar cloudgrid units in off-the-grid communities, we aim to leverage key lessons learned in those communities to improve our operating model, product design and business expansion plans. With funding from MIT Solve, we hope to procure materials and components to build enough Solar Cloudgrid units to reach close to 3,000 family beneficiaries by 2025, this will enable our venture to sustain our business operations and procure materials at a lower cost by bulk orders, and to keep improving our products to suit the needs of the communities through further iterations and R&D. In addition, we hope to connect with Solver partners for operational and technical advice to scale up our business, connections with solar PV and battery producers to lower lead time for product development and aggregate demand platforms to procure lower cost of goods, and lastly, expert advice on impact measurement and assessment to enhance our impact measurement and management framework and tools.

Our key differentiator is that we focus primarily on impact and sustainability where profit acts as a key lever to deliver greater impact for the underserved communities in the long run. The product that we have developed is not entirely unique, but our operating model is unique in that we truly believe in being hands-on and engage deeply with communities on the ground to understand their challenges and needs. We aim to build long-term partnerships by ensuring long-term, reliable and ongoing support to the communities, such as creating micro-business opportunities, developing capacity-building programs and improving the products and services that we provide by ensuring timely and reliable maintenance and repairs. We have developed a program to scale up operations by training local community members to become technicians and outreach managers who are paid a monthly income. Beneficiaries of the communities also benefit from micro-business opportunities to charge other community members who are earning less than USD2/ day to use their solar home units to charge their mobile phones at a much lower cost than relying on suppliers using diesel generators.

Our vision to scale our innovation is to cover more than 1 million household beneficiaries in the Philippines, with the potential for regional expansion in Southeast Asia, which entails an innovative business approach to “franchise-out” our operating model to micro-preneurs throughout off-grid island and remote communities in the country. This can be done through private-public sector partnership to offer micro-financing, to lower the upfront capital costs and to accelerate achieving cash flow positivity for these micro-preneurs, by implementing innovative approaches such as negotiating delayed payments or leasing agreements with suppliers based on potential government support.

We have deployed 480 solar home units to date and will further deploy another 1000 units from 2024 to 2025. Through an affordable subscription fee of only Php10 a day, family beneficiaries will gain access to clean energy and will also ensure that they take good care of the solar cloudgrid units. The fees collected will be used to build additional solar cloudgrid units for the next family beneficiaries and fund future operational costs such as repairs and maintenance. For example, once 1,000 cloudgrid units are deployed to the communities, our earnings will be US$6000 per month ($6 x 1000), the revenue will be re-invested to build additional units for next beneficiaries. Coordination with local government units will ensure that deployment to neighboring communities will be smooth, leveraging lessons learned in the pilot communities to improve our operating model and product design. 

Based on a small sample of actual data (surveys conducted), secondary information obtained through community leads and local government and approximation, our impact to date are:

• Avoided more than 45,313.61 kg GHG emissions 

• Provided affordable energy to 480 households (2,400 people)

• Increased studying hours for more than 1,440 children

• Enabled 30% increase in productivity hours

• Improved health & safety for >2,400 people

We will use a framework that is aligned with the UN SDG Impact and will use the following key metrics to measure the direct and indirect outcomes of our venture’s activities:

• Climate impact (avoided CO2 emissions) - Amount of GHG emissions avoided by switching from kerosene/ gasoline to a renewable energy source such as the solar power units

• Quality of life (appliances impact indicator) - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

• Economic impact (number of micro-preneurial jobs created or income generated)  - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth through job creation, micro-business and increased productivity

• Education impact (proportion of children with access to sufficient light at night) - children with access to solar light at night and are able to study and complete their homework

• Health impact (Number of households visited medical facilities due to respiratory issues) - improving health and well-being by reducing indoor air pollution

Our company designs and develops a product that utilizes solar power and energy storage to provide sustainable, affordable, and inclusive electricity to households in the Philippines. Our Cloudgrid Solar kit includes 1 solar panel, 1 energy storage box, 2 LED bulbs, 4 USB ports for mobile charging and optional (ceiling fan). It has a simple plug-and-play design which is easy to install in remote communities, and the build design is low cost, efficient and modular. The batteries are fully-recyclable and can be repurposed for further use, and the product is scalable as we use readily available materials and easy to build.

Our service covers deployment to maintenance of the systems, making it a comprehensive and clean energy solution for off-the-grid communities. We offer a Subscription as a Service model for these solar powered units that provide energy for lighting, mobile phone and small appliances charging.  Customers pay a monthly subscription of USD 6 which includes maintenance, repairs and replacement costs. This is a very affordable proposition compared to the cost of alternatives amounting up to USD30/ month that is spent by families on gasoline and mobile phone charging.

There are 6 members on the solution team. 

- Jovie Gil Montajes, co-founder, CTO and project lead (full-time) 

- Hilda Sin, co-founder, impact management lead and fund-raising (full-time)

- 1 Technical Staff (full-time)
- 1 Admin Staff (full-time)
- 3 community technicians (part-time)

Close to 4 years. Our solar cloudgrid version 1.0 was deployed on Aug 28, 2020.

Our leadership team is diverse in terms of gender, background and experience. Our skills sets & experiences complement one another, and we are all bound by the passion to serve the underprivileged and to solve real life challenges brought about by energy poverty. Jovie Gil Montajes (co-founder) has 15+ years building Electronic Tech for Good, is a passionate clean energy advocate with a background in Electronics and communications Engineering. Born in a poor family in the province, he has personally experienced using kerosene wick lamps to study at night. Nonetheless, he has persevered through much adversity and challenges to graduate in Engineering, worked at a US Corporate Printer company as World Wide Level 3 Technical Expert for 8 years, and is now determined to work to improve the lives of the underprivileged communities. Hilda Sin (co-founder) has 20+ years of experience in banking and consulting in Asia Pacific and the US. She has held senior and advisory roles in a clean tech startup, a private sector financial advisory role at UNDP, and spearheaded a Global Business Intelligence function at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). She is passionate about advocating and driving systemic change with mission-driven organizations, and has the expertise to drive, manage, report our environmental and social impact in our fund-raising efforts.

Our Mission is "All about Life", and affordable energy is key to supporting livelihoods and economic development in the underserved communities. Therefore, our goal is to ensure that equal opportunities are given to all groups of people in the underserved communities to become technicians, and training programs will be adapted accordingly. For example, for women who are interested to undergo training to become technicians or to learn more about solar technology, we will plan the programs on weekends when they are free to attend the sessions while their husbands are home to take care of their children.

Our company designs and develops a product that utilizes solar power and energy storage to provide sustainable, affordable, and inclusive electricity to households in the Philippines. Our service covers deployment to maintenance of the systems, making it a comprehensive and clean energy solution for off-the-grid communities. We offer a Subscription as a Service model for these solar powered units that provide energy for lighting, mobile phone and small appliances charging.  Customers pay a monthly subscription of USD 6 which includes maintenance, repairs and replacement costs. This is a very affordable proposition compared to the cost of alternatives amounting up to USD30/ month that is spent by families on gasoline and mobile phone charging.

Our customers are mainly off-the-grid, underserved remote island communities in Cebu, Bohol and Mindanao in the Philippines. These customers are looking for cleaner and sustainable energy alternatives to replace hazardous diesel/gasoline-powered generators, candles, or kerosene lamps.  They value a renewable and sustainable source of energy utilising solar panels and battery storage which are easily implemented in their homes. This solution also saves our customers time traveling by boat (often up to 2-3 hours round trip) to the main island to buy gasoline and kerosene, therefore increasing the possibility to earn more income with the increase in productivity.

We have primarily relied on grants, individual donations and re-investment of profits to sustain our business operations so far. Due to a significant grant of USD250,000 which we have been awarded last year, we will be able to deploy 1000 units from 2024 to 2025. Through an affordable subscription fee of only Php10 a day, family beneficiaries will gain access to clean energy. The fees collected will be used to build additional solar cloudgrid units for the next family beneficiaries and fund future operational costs such as repairs and maintenance. For example, once 1,000 cloudgrid units are deployed to the communities, our earnings will be US$6,000 per month ($6 x 1000), the revenue will be re-invested to build additional units for next beneficiaries. We aim to apply for more grants to reach close to 3,000 family beneficiaries by 2025, this will enable our venture to sustain our business operations and procure materials at a lower cost by bulk orders, and to keep improving our products to suit the needs of the communities through further iterations and R&D.

We are also exploring the CSR program for corporates, where we offer our services to large corporations, where we conduct a program for basic assembly of the units for team building and advocacy about renewable energy, and its impact to the communities and the environment, after which the assembled units will then be deployed to the community beneficiaries.