Piloting demand driven community electrification and digitalization beyond the grid
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Contact leader for the project
Kjetil Kjetil Røine
The three Norwegian companies W. Giertsen Energy Solutions (WGES) AS, Eltek AS and Differ AS have established a commercial partnership to be more successful commercially, and stimulate more socioeconomic development and climate impact, by joining forces compared to going separately. The companies’ product offer complementary products offerings in PV-based electricity production, and together we cover the entire spectrum of PV-systems from the smallest stand-alone systems below 1kW to bigger systems in the 100-300 kW range. In addition, the companies offer a variety of super energy-efficient appliances, for instance indoor and outdoor LED lamps, fans, radio, TV and fridge; and plan to expand our offering depending on the demands identified in the markets. Furthermore, thy offer innovative battery solutions and proprietary mobile payment solutions. The long-term objective of the project is to be able to provide tailored solutions to any requests for off-grid energy and digital services in community buildings beyond the grid (or with poor grid), as well as the communities in general. The project follows a fundamental approach in that the size and design of the PV-systems is decided by the services and functionalities that are to be provided. Their competitive edge will be as a full-range provider of P V-based energy solutions to a wide range of buildings and beneficiaries, making it more flexible and cost-effective to meet any demand from the customers and more practical for the customer to source the full spectrum of energy services from one consortium. The project aims to develop and test how the different solutions and products that the three partners offer can be combined into solutions that fit the needs of health stations, schools and surrounding communities. The research and development is done by building on and expanding a limited pilot that the consortium runs together with the UNDP.