The Roads to Carbon Neutral - Season 5 - Episode 1 - Energizing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
The Roads to Carbon Neutral - Season 5 - Episode 1
Energizing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
The Roads to Carbon Neutral
The fifth season of our program entitled “The Roads to Carbon Neutral”, in partnership with CNBC Catalyst, provides an insight into the solutions and innovations making the transition to low-carbon energy a reality and helping us achieve a carbon-neutral future. These powerful on-the-ground stories are led by TotalEnergies’ employees.
For this first episode, we are heading to Mutare in western Zimbabwe. Esther Mafara, Project Manager of the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies, shows us how this challenge is helping stimulate innovative solutions aimed at transforming the energy landscape and accelerating social and economic development across local communities.
Gridbox co-founders Tinaye Makoni and Tapiwa Chamboko are among the four pan-African winners in the Power'Up category. Their innovation - a smart solar microgrid - provides a reliable electricity supply to rural communities and even enables farmers to irrigate their land during droughts. This solution cuts freshwater use and connects isolated rural communities to the grid, which illustrates the role that innovation can play in driving sustainable development and promoting universal access to a more sustainable energy source.
[Mutare, Zimbabwe]
Esther Mafara, Project Manager of the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies Zimbabwe: Most people in Zimbabwe live in the countryside amongst natural beauty and wildlife. But our land and this way of life is under threat. I come from a background of farmers, so I know a thing or two about the pressures of farmers due to climate change. Unstable weather is devastating for rural communities and they already have their odds stacked against them. TotalEnergies has been hunting for the best entrepreneurs across Africa, to contribute to tackle energy poverty and to help the transition towards lower carbon energies. One of this year's big winners is based here in Zimbabwe, and they have a solution that could be revolutionary. Our contest is called the StartUpper Challenge and one of this year's Pan African winners is GridBox. GridBox is run by two co-founders Tapiwa and Tinaye.
Tinaye Makoni, CEO and Co-Founder of Gridbox: Our solution is mobile solar containers for off-grid farmers, which uses AI to make irrigation more efficient. In Zimbabwe, we have experienced energy poverty and we do not know when the lights are going to go off. I started our company with my friend Tapiwa and we have gone on to do wonderful things with our solution. We weren’t guaranteed work after university, and we saw that energy poverty was at the root cause of this issue across the continent. Around 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity, meaning that farmers are highly dependent on rainfall for irrigation. But water is scarce with drought. This is why we developed GridBox.
Tapiwa Chamboko, CTA and Co-Founder of Gridbox: The mini grids are portable so can be moved and used when they are needed and bypass a long construction time normally needed to bring electricity infrastructure to these areas. These smart chips use AI-driven precision farming techniques, optimizing irrigation schedules and water usage. Electricity can be channeled to operate water pumps, allowing farmers to tap into other water sources amid drought, such as groundwater and rivers. This stretches existing water supply, improving yield and food security.
Samuel Murenje, Farmer at the Hartzell High School: We managed to grow crops and feed the school children. The excess was sold to the community to fund other school projects, to secure a brighter future for the school.
Tinaye Makoni: It is truly amazing to see what electricity can do for people. At this school, they have got a prototype version of GridBox that runs a 20-kilowatt system, and we are upgrading this to a 250-kilowatt system, to expand their energy needs, and make them more productive. We have created a pay-as-you-go system, which means that we are fractionalizing the cost to access electricity. That means low earners can be able to pay for what they can use.
[TotalEnergies Head Office - Harare, Zimbabwe]
Esther Mafara: Now that GridBox has won the StartUpper Challenge, they'll get business mentorship to enable them to grow and scale, implementing their solution across Zimbabwe and hopefully across the continent. The StartUpper Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to play an active role in the development of the country. We had a staggering 40,000 registrations submitted during the challenge in 32 countries this year. But not only has GridBox been awarded in Zimbabwe as a winner, they were also selected as one of the four Pan African winners.
Tinaye Makoni: Being an entrepreneur in Zimbabwe and across the globe is not an easy task, but you have to have faith that a door will open. And TotalEnergies has helped us to get closer to that door.
Esther Mafara: The spirit of the Zimbabwean people is Ubuntu. Ubuntu means togetherness, Ubuntu means unity, and this is how we are going to fight climate change together.
Startupper of The Year Challenge by TotalEnergies
To coincide with the Company’s 100th anniversary, TotalEnergies has launched a special edition of the Startupper of the Year Challenge in 32 African countries. Aimed at young African entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35, it is designed to promote innovation and foster sustainable social and economic development across the continent.
For the fourth edition of the challenge, projects were assessed against four criteria, namely sustainable development, innovative character, feasibility and development potential, and gender equality. The local winners were divided into three categories: Innov'Up for the most innovative project, Cycle'Up for the best circular economy project, and Power'Up for the most promising sustainable and affordable energy project. In addition to the local winners, four pan-African winners were rewarded in the Power'Up category.
Each winner will receive financial support and personalized coaching, as well as the visibility offered by the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies. In the African continent, this program reflects TotalEnergies’ commitment to support the Sustainable Development Goals, provide everyone with access to energy and lead the energy transition, thereby helping build new sustainable local business models.
The Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies is a tremendous opportunity to play an active role in shaping the country’s development.Esther Mafara Project Manager of the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies Zimbabwe
The 2024 Challenge: Key Figures
Gridbox : an innovative solution for agriculture in Zimbabwe
Water management is a major global challenge, with agriculture representing 70% of freshwater withdrawals. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 5% of cultivated land is irrigated, meaning that farmers depend on rainfall, which is increasingly unpredictable due to the effects of climate change. In addition, some 600 million people still have no access to electricity. In Zimbabwe, many rural communities lack a reliable connection to the power grid, which complicates the process of pumping water and exacerbates the problems already caused by droughts and insufficient food security.
To meet this challenge, Tinaye Makoni and Tapiwa Chamboko, pan-African winners of the Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies in the Power'Up category, stood out with their innovation, called Gridbox. This portable, pre-designed solution aims to tackle water scarcity and improve food security in Zimbabwe. Gridbox generates electricity for irrigating land and provides a storage unit for extending the shelf life of agricultural produce, thereby ensuring that food waste is effectively managed.
This smart solar microgrid provides a reliable electricity supply to off-grid rural communities. It allows farmers to run their water pumps and irrigation systems, even during drought periods, by exploiting the limited water sources available. AI-augmented precision agriculture techniques are instrumental in reducing water use compared to traditional methods, which allows farmers to achieve satisfactory yields with limited resources.
As the effects of climate change continue to make their presence felt, this innovation illustrates how technology can be harnessed to promote sustainable development and improve the resilience of local communities.
It’s not easy being an entrepreneur in Zimbabwe and around the world, but you’ve got to believe that doors will open, and TotalEnergies has helped us get even closer to that door.Tinaye Makoni CEO and Co-Founder of Gridbox
The Roads to Carbon Neutral
