Project description
Solar-powered hub to charge devices off-grid
3.8 billion people worldwide have never experienced the internet. Yet 3.6 billion people live in places covered by 3G or 4G. The problem is not connectivity but lack of infrastructure, affordability and digital skills. The EU-funded REACH project has developed the StreamSpot that provides power to charge devices and a streaming platform that offers digital content and services to the unconnected. It works across South-East Asia and Africa, and in refugee camps where the lack of electricity and connectivity is a constant problem. The project has also developed a remote control platform to ensure accountability and transparency. The commercialisation plan is to deploy at least 20 000 hubs across South-East Asia and Africa by 2023.
Objective
While in the developed regions availability of electricity power has paved the way of sustainable development, it is still not available to ca. 18% of the world population, living in rural areas in developing countries and refugee camps worldwide. No access to power indicates exhausting effort for covering basic needs, which impedes sustainable social and economic development. Nearly 700 million people worldwide have mobile phone connections but no access to the electricity. In India, people belong to off-grid communities need to travel approximately 15 km to get their mobile phone charged. We have developed a unique solar power based Hub system and remote payment control mechanism by which electronic devices can be charged under the control of a central server to ensure accountability and transparency. This will enable EU companies to enter in €8 to 10 billion untouched market by delivering essential internet-based services (e.g. e-health, e-education, e-governance etc). BuffaloGrid supplies Hubs free of cost to local agents. This will stimulate local enterprise, encourage entrepreneurship and boost economic development. During SMEi Phase – 1 feasibility study, we have identified several technical improvements that are mainly focused on further development of the Hub, PCB and server designs. For commercial feasibility of the project, we have successfully performed market research, environmental impact assessment, partnership establishment, risk analysis and competitor analysis. During this project, we aim to reach from TRL7 to TRL9 and will make the product ready for mass scale deployment. We will focus on technical design improvement of the Hub for cost reduction (60%) and will finalise optimised system for mass scale production. We will also validate Hub functionality and server operations and will trial online services of EU SMEs in the field. Our commercialization plan is to deploy minimum 50,000 hubs across India, Sub-Sahara Africa and Refugee camps by 2021.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- social sciences economics and business business and management commerce e-commerce
- social sciences other social sciences development studies development economics
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
- social sciences sociology demography human migrations
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
L1 0BP LIVERPOOL
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.