completed· Climate· Livelihoods

Project GANESHA - Getting power Access to rural-Nepal through thermally cooled battery Energy storage for transport and Home Applications

Project GANESHA focusses on development, manufacture and implementation of an innovative battery module solution for powering Nepal rural-based small passenger vehicles and off-grid low-power home energy systems. Solar-power installations will be constructed to pilot our innovation in two seperate rural-Nepal pilot sites with marginal-/zero-power access. Our consortium including three-UK and two-Nepal organisations, was formed to assist solution-development for commercial challenges faced by the Nepal Electric Vehicle Institute (NEVI) in achieving its ambition to provide Nepal-wide zero-carbon public-transport/power access. NEVI were established in the mid-1990s when growing urban-population densities led to exponential-increase in urban-internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle registrations/polluton. NEVI were pioneers in retrofitting Nepal-ICE-rickshaws to EV, and developing battery-solutions to power these vehicles. It rents batteries to marginalised-/low income-communities through its its affordable model, to facilitate their independant-income-generation (60% of its work-force being female). Limitations of Nepal's rural-/urban-location power grid/distribution restrict EV-rollout across the country. NEVI are forced to depot-recharge EV-rickshaws during night-periods when power-demand is low and risk of powercuts are minimised. Limited depot-space and grid-power restrictions limit EV-rickshaws numbers NEVI can provide each location's public-transport market. NEVI wish to access solar-power to charge vehicle battery packs and envision a removable solution simlar to products currently marketed in India and Sub-Saharan Africa to expand its service to rural-communities where solutions are most needed (aligning with its original mission). However, current module-products are recharged at low C-rates and require large capital-investment. To supply a public-transport EV-fleet NEVI would require large module-stocks and high-area solar-arrays. Our projects innovation/case study-sites resolve this dilemma. A new module will be designed, manufactured, and mobilised incorporating PAK-Engineering Ltd's robust-/lightweight-heat exchanger technology. PAK's system facilitates high C-rate charging and design-versatility enabling PAK to adapt/optimise its function to suit multiple environmental-conditions. EPT Ltd will design module-incorporated state-sensor/communications technology so module-function is optimised, and location tracked when in use. Gamma-Meon Ltd will design, adapt and incorporate a specilised payment systems platform that EV-rickshaw operators and users will use to access NEVI services. Our solution will reduce mentioned-capital investment-requirments, and enable rollout to two rural-communities with marginal-/zero-power access in project-timescales. NEVI via partneship with Nepal-famed gender/social-equity pioneer 3 Sisters Trekking Group will construct two rural-solar arrays for charging our-modules, for powering 8-10 EV-vehicles adapted to location-conditions, and provide home-energy-kits for lighting and small-device charging for imroving life-quality in these locations.