No grid. No internet. No problem. Solar generation, local battery storage, and HMAC-authenticated energy trading between neighbours, all at the firmware level, with no utility company, no central server, and no supply chain beyond the initial hardware.
Centralised grid extension costs £3,000–£8,000 per household and takes 15–30 years to reach rural communities. Diesel generators cost 60–80p per kWh and need fuel chains that do not exist in remote areas. Both options have been tried for decades. Neither has worked at scale.
People in Sub-Saharan Africa with no electricity access. The largest unserved energy market on earth.
Per-household cost for centralised grid extension. Takes 15–30 years to reach rural communities on existing timelines.
Average diesel generator cost per kWh in rural Africa, 5–10x the UK retail price, with unstable fuel supply.
Each household gets a solar panel, a battery, and a mesh radio node. The node measures local generation and consumption, authenticates energy trades with neighbours via HMAC signatures, and settles balances automatically, with no internet, no central server, and no utility company.
Each house receives a 200W solar panel, a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery, and a smart metering unit. Total hardware BOM per node: £427 ex-works, £562 landed in-country.
Nodes communicate over LoRa 868MHz, range up to 5km node-to-node, no internet required. The mesh self-routes around failed nodes automatically.
Nodes broadcast availability: "I have 40Wh surplus at 8p/kWh." Neighbour nodes accept or reject based on their own state-of-charge and consumption forecast. All at firmware level.
Every energy transfer is signed with HMAC-SHA256. No node can forge a transaction. Tamper-evident audit log stored locally on each device, no cloud dependency.
Balances settle weekly or monthly via mobile money (M-Pesa, Orange Money). Village administrators receive a simple PDF report. No accounting skills required.
A complete per-household energy node, including solar, storage, mesh hardware, and installation materials.
| Component | Spec | Ex-Works Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Solar panel | 200W monocrystalline | £62 |
| Battery | 100Ah LiFePO4, 12V | £89 |
| Charge controller | MPPT 20A | £28 |
| Mesh node | ESP32 + LoRa SX1276 868MHz + smart meter | £34 |
| Inverter | 300W pure sine, 12V DC → 230V AC | £41 |
| Cabling + enclosure | IP54 outdoor rated | £38 |
| LED lighting kit | 3× 5W LED + fixtures | £22 |
| USB charging ports | 2× USB-A, 1× USB-C | £13 |
| Total ex-works | £427 | |
| Landed cost (freight + import + local delivery) | £562 | |
20-house village total: approx. €13,160 landed (including 2× community battery hubs). Firmware IP included in all deployment tiers. Hardware BOM is open. Source locally where supply chains permit.
Village Energy Mesh against the three common alternatives for rural electrification.
| Factor | Village Energy Mesh | Grid Extension | Diesel Generator | Individual Solar Kit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per household | £562 landed | £3,000–£8,000 | £800–£1,500 + ongoing fuel | £150–£400 (basic only) |
| Internet dependency | None | Required for smart meter | None | None |
| P2P energy trading | ✔ Built-in | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Energy cost per kWh | ~6–10p (solar amortised) | 15–25p | 60–80p | ~8–14p (single household only) |
| Community redundancy | ✔ Mesh self-heals | ✗ Single point of failure | ✗ | ✗ No sharing |
| Deployment timeline | 4–8 weeks per village | 5–20 years | 1–2 weeks | 1–3 days |
| Audit / tamper-proof | ✔ HMAC on every tx | Partial | ✗ | ✗ |
Three structured phases from pilot to regional scale. Each phase produces verifiable data for impact reporting and donor accountability.
Structured to match the scale and commitment level of each deployment partner.
Firmware licence for a single village deployment. Includes updates, remote firmware support, and 12 months of data collection. Ideal for pilots and evaluation deployments with NGO or donor funding.
Exclusive deployment rights within a defined geographic region (district or country). Includes firmware, training, and data reporting tools. Priced on region population and deployment scale. For NGOs and development organisations deploying at scale.
Full transfer of firmware and protocol intellectual property. One-time acquisition, no ongoing licence fee. Option to open-source hardware BOM while retaining firmware IP. For government bodies, large development banks, or organisations requiring full IP ownership.
Tell us about your project and we'll come back to you within 48 hours with a deployment proposal and cost estimate.