OwnWall - Building the rural electrification of tomorrow
Software defined power converters
to trigger bottom up rural electrification
Jean Alinei, product designer for the OwnWall project, talks about our idea.
Rural electrification challenges
One Billion - 1 000 000 000
Is the number of people without access to electricity, most of them women
Solutions are too unique
Field practionners solve each case with specific solutions leading to high development costs of non re-usable technical solutions.
Renewable energy is not readily available
Renewable energy is intermittent and requires complex solutions
Prices struggle to be competitive
Rural electrification is not cheap, specially in terms of maintenance
Fossil-fuels based solutions are not sustainable
Diesel generators are widely used in rural electrification, but they are neither sustainable nor cheap
Technology is proprietary, but maintenance is collective
Proprietary technology blocks the path to long-term maintenance and local development
Power electronics for electrification
Energy can be locally manufactured ...
There are solutions to locally build renewable energy sources
... but power electronics are still off-the-shelf
The key to energy management is power electronics, but its design remains proprietary technology
Off-the-shelf technology often means customs fees
Importing off-the-shelf power converters often means custom fees and delays that can hamper long-term energy provision
Developing solutions takes time, people and funds
Locally developping a solution may seem a good idea, but time to market and slim ressources are a great hurdle to overcome
Maintenance means proximity between field and industry
Effective maintenance requires a close link between the industry providing the technology and rural communities
Our disruptive proposition
Open standard hardware
Using a standard, universal and open hardware converter will dramatically cut costs.
This standard element will be a game-changer in an emerging market, by combining high-tech with local manufacturing.
Collaborative software marketplace
From an universal hardware it will be possible to create and sell collaborative software.
These software defined power converters will provide the final user the tools to answer any problems emerging from the field.
Innovative business models
With hardware compatibility and software flexibility, field practionners can diversify their business models.
Global companies can increase profitability by moving from selling hardware to leasing software.
The OwnWall Project
Robust Open-Source Power Electronics Technology for Bottom-Up Rural Electrification
An unique power converter
Flexibility lies in redundancy
Using redundancy to favor flexibility, the open-source three-phase converter of the OwnWall project is the generic platform needed to answer the needs of the field
Going to the source
Knowledge is best shared
All the development is led on from a centralized repository.
You can access it below.
Meet the team
Dr. Luiz Lavado
Associate Professor
University of Toulouse - France
Rafael Oliva
Electronics Engineer
L&R Ingeniaria - Argentina
Jean Alinei
Product Engineer
ACE - France
Ronan Blanchard
Control Engineer
Grenoble INP - France
Join the team, make a difference
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