Solutions

PROBLEM:

*Global warming! Encouraged by the quasi-institutional fossil fuel dependency among low-income communities. There's a significant energy poverty in Africa; one that forces African households to heavily rely on fossil fuels as energy sources. The energy demand-supply gap is attributable to inadequate generation policies of governments, budgetary constraints and mismanagement, complete energy-dependency-citizens lack supply autonomy and inadequate access to information that can build supply efficiency. According to a 2017 peer-reviewed research by infopreneurs, the entire African continent produces as much power as Spain and Austria. Consequently, African citizens have institutionalized fossil fuel usage, spiking emission potentials without proportional intensification of mitigation efforts.

*Africa has a poor waste management system and culture particularly due to the general trivialization of hygienic waste-disposal mechanisms. Recycling efforts for non-degradablewastes are subliminal and inefficient disposal systems like landfills and open incineration are more consistently employed. This normative generally harms the environment by contaminating natural habitats and degrading the purity of ecosystems.

SOLUTION:

*An innovative energy autonomization model that turns rural African farms into circular energy-efficient farms, powering rural and urban communities, reducing fossil fuel dependency, managing wastes and providing economic empowerment for impoverished farmers in the process. The model has two functional approaches:

Using anaerobic biogas digesters created from HOMEMADE and recycled car parts to convert human urine, rural and urban wastes into biogas for cooking, and trapping these gases for sell to urban cities at competitive prices. The anaerobic digesters are made from discarded plastics and recycled car parts. They act as centralized systems in the houses where wastes are discarded and urine is discarded. The low-cost model ensures African homes can all sell products made from their wastes and their urine IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASSES. The model has high scalability because farms can utilize organic wastes, at no-cost to generate biogas for sell.

MODUS OPERANDI:

The idea, when implemented, will reduce the energy demand-supply gap one home at a time. At full implementation, it has the potential to turn rural communities to independent energy farms that supply low-cost biogas solutions to cities. Given that there are over 3,000 households in Owerri, the autonomization project can potentially improve the lives of over 300 lives at 0-1% effort. A systematic appraisal of all benefits( including the reduced waste management challenges, good sewage disposal, empowerment, power generation and supply of cheap, sustainable energy models for high-intensity urban lifestyles(affordability will be driven by the extremely low cost of generation),the impact could be scaled to exponential proportions.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION TIME:

Project planning, survey, preparation and execution could take up to 2 years to implement. This is primarily due to the undocumented nature of Nigerian rural communities.

The key performance indicators are:

the number of farms becoming completely circular and autonomous in energy generation,

the sustainability of the autonomy,

the number of rural homes that plug the supply gap by selling biogas to other homes and the cities,

popularization of biogas as a credible substitute for natural gas,

an improved waste-management culture signified by regularity of disposal and increased recycling.

PARTNERSHIPS:

The #EnergyAutonomy project will be implemented in collaboration with organizations. Operational license is crucial while local NGOs will be engaged during expansion to ensure wider access.

SCALABILITY:

The #EnergyAutonomy project primarily seeks to empower rural communities through a model that specifically targets unit homes and the energy consumption culture. More communities can be engaged and the protection of the proprietary biogas creation model will provide increased relevance for the organization during the popularization of the project. More communities, states and more generically, more nations can collectivize. The engagement of rural communities is a strategic choice, crucial to the sustainability of the idea ,the scalability and the achievement of the objectives.