The leading lights of wunderkind firm Mobisol, a Berlin start-up, left the company to found their own research institute. They still believe that the private sector has a key role in bringing solar power to Africa and the developing world. Paul Hockenos reports There was quite a bit of hype just a handful of years ago when start-ups with names such as Mobisol, Off Grid Electric, M-Kopa, and others appeared to have devised a formula for bringing electricity to Africa’s neediest – namely by selling it to them. But the poorest of Africa’s poor just couldn’t make the small, pay-as-you-go instalments reliably enough and in the volume that the young, indebted companies needed to sustain their pioneering model. Their investors, used to double-digit profits in short timeframes, became impatient and pushy. Restructurings, insolvencies, and bankruptcies brought expectations, and the idealistic start-ups, plummeting back down to earth. The Berlin-based Mobisol was the first to venture into the world of off-grid, rural Africa with basic solar panels, small batteries, and LED light bulbs. Today, after declaring insolvency … Continue reading A New Approach for Electrifying Africa with Clean Energy