11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 1/6

follow us

About

Growing the world’s next energy network, smartly distributed, viable and sustainable, through anunique approach that empowers for local systems to emerge!

Through a monthly subscription, rural Indian villagers rent a Rural Spark energy kit and become Local Energy Suppliers who generate,use and sell energy. By trading energy surpluses with other Local Energy Suppliers in the network, supply and demand are linked.

Using tools that allow for local systems to emerge from within the context, Rural Spark offers the future network solution that evolvesalong with the development of the context (as opposed to most temporary stand alone solutions), already today. For realization, localpartnerships and local networks to build economically viable business models are established.

Transforming energy networks

Energy, we use it everyday. Someday more, someday less. This energy is generated to meetour needs, using controllable fossil fuels. Sustainable energy, coming from our sun or the wind,cannot be controlled and might fail to meet our needs, although on average, there is more thanenough sustainable energy. Smart grids offer a solution; smartly linking supply and demandenables us to use surpluses to meet demands. Rural spark realizes the potential to apply ‘smartgrids’ in developing countries, enabling them to leapfrog traditional top-down, centralized energygrids. Starting in India where 400 million people currently don’t have access to electricity.Rural Spark empowers local stakeholder to grow an autonomous functioning network, in whichenergy, information, maintenance and profits are distributed on all levels, thereby activelyparticipating in the growth of an open, new (world) energy market from the bottom-up.

03:04

11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 2/6

Local energy rental kit, installed inMohgaon, Madhya Pradesh

Mr. Ranjit, responsible local energy supplierin Sankuhi, Madhya Pradesh, India

Design homegrown development“the only way to get true insights in how to transform society, isby actually doing it”Based upon our strong vision on future energy networks, RuralSpark designs the required tools and infrastructure from withinthe context. Instead of determining what to supply from behinda desk, the design studio is moved into the context to design forwhat is in demand. This approach allows for socially designedtools (making our envisioned goal tangible already) thatempower villagers to become entrepreneurs and pioneers. These empowered village levelentrepreneurs already make a large difference in their village, earning both money and socialvalue. Connecting all the entrepreneurs, together they grow the smart, distributed energynetwork of tomorrow.

Using the approach of designing for small empowerment toenable a large vision, many local organizations cross the path.Together with these organizations, economically viablebusiness models are developed from within the context,leveraging local networks and (social) infrastructure. Durabledevelopment requires continuous value creation andeconomical sustainability cooperating with local partners andexisting networks. Learn more about our unique hidden-design approach here. Sharing energy“specially designed tools creating social entrepreneurship”

To ensure local responsibility and involvement, Rural Spark provides a specially designed‘charging dock’ which allows a local villager to charge tools like LED Solar Lamps, radios, fansand mobile phones. This person becomes a local energy supplier, sharing harvested energy

11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 3/6

Introducing the tools enables local co-development in designing sharing schemason the village level

Sharing energy has vast social effects;increasing ownership, responsibility & socialcohesion

Charging Share Cubes by connecting themto the Energy Router

the transportation of energy; linking supply& demand

among his customers. Collecting small fees from his customersfor charging the devises, the entrepreneur takes responsibilityfor the system.By sharing energy, the entrepreneur makes more efficient useof the solar panel and charging hardware while earning moneywith providing energy for charging tools like sustainable LEDlamps. If, for example, the local entrepreneur charges Rs 50,-per month for charging a solar lamps, rural entrepreneurshipstimulates economic activity at the village level. Moreover, theLED Solar Lamp will provide better, safer and more sustainablelight for less money than kerosine.

Apart from the financial and environmental benefits, sharingenergy has vast social effects on the village level. For theempowered entrepreneur, it increases ownership and sense ofresponsibility. Moreover, social cohesion increases between allstakeholders involved. The customers come everyday to theentrepreneur where a social community will emerge. Thisprovides an extra social incentive to both the customers and theentrepreneur to take care of the system, ensuring continuation.Together the villagers are using solar energy in a new way, thisenhances the feeling of community and responsibility.

Smartly connected entrepreneurs“creating a network where Rural Spark becomes a serviceprovider, smartly connectingenergy surpluses and shortages from different sources” To put the concept of linking supply and demand into practice,entrepreneurs are empowered to exchange energy with oneanother. The Local Energy kit provides enough energy tocharge rechargeable tools (LED lamps, radios, fans etc.) allyear long. As a consequence, a lot of additional energy is generated on days with more sun.

To capture this energy, Rural Spark introduces Share Cubes,enabling an entrepreneur to not only charge solar lamps andother tools, but also Sharing Cubes. Charged Sharing Cubescontain energy that can be traded on an emerging market ofsupply and demand, building the world’s next energy network.

11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 4/6

3 Comments

Henk Crietee11 Jul ’13 at 12:16

Quite interesting. What appeals to us is the community approach to solving energy

11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 5/6

share

problems at village level, the possibility of local production of applianced, using as much

as possible locally available raw materials and the promotion of local entrepreneurship.

An alternative would be the distribution and sales of relatively cheap (imported) solar

lanterns to individual households in the village. What would be the specific advantages

of the system designed by Rural Spark? Could you give a rough indication of the

investment costs in euro of the solar home system designed by Rural Spark serving say

20 families. Our target group is the bottom of the pyramid, i.e. poor families living in rural

areas. Affordability and an expressed interest and demand for the proposed system is

crucial. The Rural Spar system is in our opinion not suitable for cooking because that

will use too much energy. Our foundation, the Solar Cooking Foundation the

Netherlands (SCN) has developed, together with our NGO partners in Uganda and

Ethiopia, an Integrated Solar Cooking system using simple solar cooking devices and

fuel saving stoves for cooking. Reference is made to our website

http://www.solarcooking.nl. . Regards, Henk Crietee, treasurer and project coordinator

Uganda SCN

↩ Reply

Harmen23 Jul ’13 at 09:06

Henk, thanks for your comment. The solar cooking devices you’re

proposing seem quite interesting. You’re right that the current system

by Rural Spark is not used for cooking. We’re still in the R&D stage

regarding cooking heat, as we incorporate the concept of smart

energy networks in cook-heat as well (storing heat of the sun during

the day, so it can be transported and used during the evening /

night). It might be interesting to exchange experience!

Regarding our current concept, the unique advantage is the smart

distribution of energy based on the concept of Smart Grids. With only

stand-alone products like solar-lantarns we can not build a reliable,

stable energy network with the potential to grow. A combination of

multiple energy sources (solar, wind, water, bio etc.) is required. On a

sunny day, solar powered entrepreneurs can sell their surpluses to

Local Energy Suppliers based on hydro power. On a cloudy day, the

other way around. Not only do Local Energy Suppliers have constant

access to energy through the network, also all the energy generated

is actually used, decreasing the investment of hardware.

Allow me to provide a more in debt reaction through mail!

Best, Harmen (Rural Spark)

RAKEMDRA PERUMAL18 Aug ’14 at 10:28

We are prarthana foundation we need more clarification and your way support

↩ Reply

©2011 Rural Spark. Terms and Conditions.

11/24/2014 About | Rural Spark.

http://ruralspark.com/about/ 6/6