EnAccess supports open source in energy access. We fund solutions that save time and money, and high risk R&D projects that inspire radical new action.

For our ongoing work, we look for what we broadly consider to be “Building Blocks” and we can fund projects at Concept or Pilot stages.

Innovation Pilot projects create shared solutions for problems that are commonly faced across the industry. As an example: mini-grid companies need to design and estimate the costs of a distribution network for potential project sites.

While some companies have an in-house team and/or tool to address this need, no such network design tool exists on a freely accessible and open source basis. This means that new or upcoming mini-grid companies will have to spend time and resources figuring out this aspect of their operations. While being able to design and cost a distribution network is a critical part of becoming a commercially viable mini-grid company, it’s not the source of sustainable competitive advantage.

In this sense, this shared challenge could be easily addressed by an open source tool. An open source network design tool would be what we’d call a sector “Building Block”. All developers could download the tool, adapt it to their needs, and start using it in their operations.

Moonshot concepts research high potential opportunities that might inspire new thinking in the industry. Whereas Innovations Pilots are usually quite defined, working on a new concept could be open ended and highly uncertain. We don’t always know how these projects will turn out, but are happy to take risks on ideas that we find promising.

Ideas with potential to have significant impact in terms of accelerating energy access at a sector level delivered through good value for money have higher chances to be funded vs proposals with a large budget and uncertainty in its impact.