Partner Feedback: Working With Omdena to Stop the Nigerian Energy Crisis
March 9, 2020
How Omdena changed our lives
Africa is rich in renewable energy sources, especially solar energy.
Unfortunately, the abundance of solar power has not been harnessed yet.
In my home country Nigeria, most people grew up in darkness with regular power outage. Many businesses nowadays use diesel-powered generators to produce electricity. I went through several periods without electricity altogether.
A change needs to happen.
That is why, Omachonu Joshua Dominic and I founded the NGO RA365, with the mission of providing renewable energy to most at-need communities in Nigeria to stop the energy crisis.
Diesel engine supplied electricity
Non Functional Transformer
The AI for Good challenge
Quickly, we realized the potential of using AI for solar energy but were looking for a partner to build the solutions.
Supported by Sebastian Laverde who joined Omdena’s community early on we got in contact with Omdena and within two weeks designed an AI challenge on their platform.
The goal was to end energy poverty in Nigeria via building machine learning algorithms suitable to identify the best spots for solar power.
We were impressed and encouraged by the attendance of willing participants brought together from all around the world by the large network of Omdena.
At this point, Dominic and I knew we had the right minds to revolutionize the electrification system in Nigeria.
It provided us a deep dive into the power of data science and machine learning
Much thanks to Rudradeb Mitra, an astute personality with a heart of gold, for being a blessing to this generation. Through his humanitarian assistance, and overseeing leadership, he has brought great minds together.
To all, we have to say,
Using AI for solar energy across Nigeria
The challenge was separated into two phases — the research phase which was executed by the Omdena community. This involved using machine-learning based heatmaps and grid coverage analysis to identify regional clusters in Nigeria that are most viable for installing solar panel stations.
Heatmaps that show Solar Irradiance
The developed heatmaps are reproducible in other African countries or developing places where solar energy could bring in value.
If you are interested in a more technical understanding of the AI solutions, check this article.
The second phase entails the physical deployment of a mini-off-grid solar power generation substation to power a remote community.
Solar Farms
The enthusiasm exhibited by the Omdena community sparked reassuring confidence in the RA365 team to deliver on its part of the challenge.
Our team had made great strides in using the state of the art results obtained from the challenge to build significant partnerships in the solar energy industry in Germany and with Nigerian governmental agencies.
Solving the energy crisis in Africa
The greatest hurdle for the second phase of the challenge is raising funds to deploy the mini-off-grid substations. At the moment, we are seeking funders for a mini-off-grid substation, which is estimated to be above 300,000 Euro.
Lastly, we want to say that Omdena has changed the face of philanthropy by its support in helping people suffering from electrical energy poverty.
With this great humanitarian help, Renewable Africa hopes to make its mission a reality, bringing abundant energy to Africa.
