1 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,880 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Game Changers. I'm Matt Goldman. As 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:13,039 Speaker 1: the Earth is facing an increasingly consequential climate crisis, inquisitive 3 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 1: minds all over the globe are hard at work trying 4 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: to find solutions, and many of them have been able 5 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: to translate their Eureka moments into action at a greater 6 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,920 Speaker 1: pace than scope than sometimes gloomy headlines might have us think. 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,280 Speaker 1: In this four part mini series, will meet the visionary 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: minds who attempt to sculpt the future of sustainable energy 9 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 1: and global resources. We'll get a peek behind the curtains 10 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: of their factory floors here of the sometimes surprising origins 11 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,159 Speaker 1: of their ideas, and be introduced to a potentially greener 12 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: tomorrow in this episode micro Grids and micro Economies. Currently, 13 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: I believe the households which have got power in Kenya's 14 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: approblemly about so there is another we just got no 15 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: power at all. Their household is indicated largely desa in 16 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: the rural areas. That's zachary Io, a man who knows 17 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: about power and electricity. As a former executive at the 18 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,319 Speaker 1: National Power Company, he helped expand Kenya's electricity access from 19 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 1: eighteen percent of the population in two thousand ten to sixty, 20 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: the highest in mainland East Africa. But born and raised 21 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: in rural Kenya, he also experienced the country is often 22 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: inadequate access to electricity early in life. The first time 23 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: I had power in my in my village was in 24 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: the year nineteen. Before that, there was no power at all, 25 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: completely set up the starts of living. Why extremely very 26 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: very low because the communication was zero. But the country 27 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: is not alone in its struggles. About six fifty million 28 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: people in Africa live without access to power and a 29 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:08,400 Speaker 1: continent marred by inequality and poverty. This raises an uncomfortable question, 30 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,639 Speaker 1: how do you bring people out of extreme poverty without 31 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: wrecking the climate in the process. Conventional wisdom says it 32 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: will require the burning of enough fossil fuels to counsel 33 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: out any progress that developed world makes on emissions. But 34 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: in rural Kenya, a small experiment is underway aiming to 35 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: see if it's possible to have the economic uplift without 36 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: the environmental catastrophe. It's spearheaded by power Hive, a privately 37 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: licensed utility company where Ako is currently the executive chairman. 38 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 1: Here let's go my arms crossed, or does it okay okay. 39 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: Arriving in Africa in two thousand eight, Power Hive CEO 40 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: and founder Chris Horner found a challenge enginge landscape rife 41 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:05,440 Speaker 1: with potential. Things have not really moved very much in 42 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:07,959 Speaker 1: the last hundred years, with the exception of course, of 43 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: mobile phones and mobile money and things like this. So 44 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: what's happening not only in Kesey and other parts of Kenya, 45 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:17,360 Speaker 1: but all over Africa and other parts of the world. 46 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 1: This is a huge gap in terms of those that 47 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,240 Speaker 1: have electricity and those that don't. Here in Kisy, Horner 48 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: found the perfect circumstances to try out his new solutions. 49 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: Power Hive Senior business manager Laura Kiplegat explains, well, we 50 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: went to Kesi because we were looking for a community 51 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: UM that is on the fringe of the grid like 52 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: most rural communities in Kenya, but did have the population 53 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: density to make sense for us as a business. And 54 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: Kis is a happy medium. You know, they have good son, 55 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,119 Speaker 1: good people who are willing, you know to sign onto 56 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: the project um but they it had all the components 57 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: that we needed, you know, to make our business work 58 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: that business. Power Hive currently manages around twenty five micro 59 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: grids in the Kisi region, grids that operate on solar 60 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: power stored in batteries ideal for the sunny climate. These 61 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: mini grids are power systems that supply enough electricity for 62 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: a small community. Schools and homes get electric light and 63 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,680 Speaker 1: internet service. Agricultural labor like maize milling, doesn't have to 64 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: be done by hand anymore. Electric pressure cookers eliminate the 65 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: need to chop down trees or burn charcoal to make meals. 66 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 1: All of these things raise the standard of living and 67 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:33,280 Speaker 1: relieve the environment. But there's one big problem. Our typical 68 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: communities are generally subsistence farming. Most of them are not 69 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: formally employed. Most of them don't have formal education or 70 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:47,799 Speaker 1: have not completed anything really beyond primary education UM and 71 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: are really the bottom of the pyramid in the economy. 72 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,720 Speaker 1: When we first came into too Kenya and into Keys, 73 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:01,039 Speaker 1: we quickly realized that our consumers are too poor to 74 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:05,120 Speaker 1: pay for energy power. Hive solution is as simple as 75 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: their solar panels. Create a microeconomy to bolster local businesses. 76 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: So we've introduced electric vehicles. We've introduced electric milling machines 77 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: to to to provide a better, lower cost solution for milling. Yeah. 78 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: But the starkest example of this could be found in 79 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: Poko Poa Power Hives ambitious poultry farming initiative. Most of 80 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: our communities are subsistence farmers. These are people who are 81 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:39,919 Speaker 1: already wearing chicken, but are limited by the capital you 82 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: know UM issue, and are limited by exposure and understanding 83 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: of how to to scale a poultry business. So we 84 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: developed a program to bring commercial poultry farming to our communities, 85 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:57,159 Speaker 1: create an income for for our communities, and then also 86 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: create a good energy customer for us as a business. 87 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,360 Speaker 1: So we set up CUCA Poa UM in sort of 88 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: joint partnership with local corporatives whose members are all power 89 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:10,599 Speaker 1: hive customers UM. We tend to have groups of ten 90 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:15,159 Speaker 1: typically they're all women UM or at least about women 91 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:20,920 Speaker 1: across our twenty brewderhouses. Then the corporative bringing the capital 92 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: to build the infrastructure, so they'll build a brooder house, 93 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: they'll buy all the equipment necessary UM, which is the 94 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: heating lamps, the lighting lamps, UM feeder trays, UM and 95 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:33,719 Speaker 1: water troughs, and then power Hive brings in the chicks. 96 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 1: We provide batinary services and feed, and then we also 97 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: help help them secure off takers for the poultry at 98 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:47,279 Speaker 1: the end of the cycle. It's a virtuous cycle. For 99 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:50,280 Speaker 1: power Hive, they give their customers the money and guidance 100 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:53,359 Speaker 1: to start businesses that use their electricity, and then a 101 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: portion of the income from those businesses pays for the electricity. 102 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,719 Speaker 1: So the poultry business is great because it provides food security, 103 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: but it's a it's a commodity that can actually help 104 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: generate cash and bring cash into these communities that basically 105 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:13,400 Speaker 1: severely lack cash. And as an investor, you know, that's 106 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: something that we really focus on because you know, we 107 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: want to make a return on investment. We also in 108 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:20,000 Speaker 1: order to do that, we really have to invest in 109 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: the communities in which we work, uplifting our customers to 110 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: become better customers, happier, healthier customers. Most most subsistence farmers 111 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 1: will keep about fifteen to twenty UM kanyegee chicken, which 112 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: is like a free range chicken um and these would 113 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: mature between eight two year eight months to two years, 114 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,239 Speaker 1: depending on the species. UM. When you look at the yield, 115 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: you know of commercially grown chicken, you're producing chickens and 116 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: selling those in six weeks, so this is exponentially increasing 117 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: the potential for for income for all these communities are involved. 118 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: Power Hive currently operates on a all scale, but Laura 119 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:04,440 Speaker 1: believes that the domino effect could be substantial for both 120 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: the company and the community. Well. Statistics show with women 121 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: who are engaged in business and are able to control 122 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: their income, which they're able to through informal cooperatives, women 123 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,360 Speaker 1: tend to invest more in business, they tend to invest 124 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: more in in education, and that has a huge knock 125 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: on effect in their communities. UM. Typically you'll also find 126 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,360 Speaker 1: the community members who do see UM or are exposed 127 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,080 Speaker 1: to successful businesses get inspired to do that themselves, you know. 128 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,839 Speaker 1: So you'll have people on some of our grids UM 129 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:40,200 Speaker 1: starting barbershops, UM, people starting maybe smaller versions of UM 130 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: poultry farms UM which they can afford. And all of 131 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 1: that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't had the exposure 132 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 1: or understood how it can be done or that it 133 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:52,680 Speaker 1: can be done. There's one of our customers who was 134 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,559 Speaker 1: involved in one of the first Cucupoa projects and she 135 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:59,360 Speaker 1: went on to start her own brooder and I think 136 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: she's producing herself three thousand chicken um, and that's just 137 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: off of the back of the experience that she gained 138 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: on Cucaca. And as far as Chris is concerned, there 139 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: might not be a more powerful way to build sustainable 140 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: power grids in Kenya and Africa in general than by 141 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,199 Speaker 1: solar micro grids. Twenty years ago, the price per kill 142 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: a lot of a solar panel was about six dollars. 143 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:26,199 Speaker 1: Now it's twenty cents. History has shown us that you know, 144 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,080 Speaker 1: as recently as the nineteen sixties and parts of the UK, 145 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:33,280 Speaker 1: there was no electricity in these villages, right, The same 146 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: same exact sort of customer profiles existed then that we're 147 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:39,360 Speaker 1: seeing now. So it's just so we have to have 148 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: a bit of patience, we have to have a bit 149 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: of vision. But in order to really accelerate this adoption 150 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 1: of distributed energy and solar and the sort of businesses 151 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,559 Speaker 1: that we're looking at, we really need to make it economic. 152 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: We need to make it so that the local Kenyan 153 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,719 Speaker 1: pension funds and other other funds will invest in these 154 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 1: types of businesses, so that these these grids, in this infrastructure, 155 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: which by a way, it's much more advanced and better 156 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:03,439 Speaker 1: than any of the infrastructure we even have in the 157 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,679 Speaker 1: United States is now being brought here is something that 158 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:08,959 Speaker 1: is truly bankable. So yes, they've been left in the 159 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 1: dark for the last you know, fifty years, longer than 160 00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: their counterparts in the UK, some of them. But the 161 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: benefit is they have the best technology now. They have 162 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:20,440 Speaker 1: the solar lithium ion batteries and all these other technologies 163 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:22,680 Speaker 1: that we've put in place that will stand the test 164 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: of time and have been built to last. It's opened 165 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,200 Speaker 1: up a huge opportunity in Africa to deliver energy and 166 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,079 Speaker 1: energy storage and this whole grid infrastructure, an ecosystem that 167 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: we're creating in a much lower cost way and in 168 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:38,079 Speaker 1: a way that actually is going to create a long 169 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,959 Speaker 1: term um distributed energy system that is actually going to 170 00:10:42,240 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 1: serve Africa for generations. This episode of Game Changers was 171 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 1: produced by Magnus Hendrikson and presented by me Matt Goldman. 172 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,160 Speaker 1: It was based on a video report produced by myself 173 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:12,840 Speaker 1: and Alan Jeffreys. For a visual experience of Game Changers, 174 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: check out our videos at Bloomberg dot com slash Green. 175 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,400 Speaker 1: Francesca Levy is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. See you 176 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: next time.