Azuri PayGo Energy

Globally, more than 1.2 billion people do not have access to electricity in their homes. As a result, they are forced to burn expensive and polluting fuels for their basic lighting needs.

Azuri has combined solar and mobile phone technology to bring power to off-grid customers in emerging rural markets. The pay‐as‐you‐go solar home system provides eight hours of emission‐free lighting each day and enough power to charge mobile phones.

After paying a small one‐time installation fee, the user then purchases a scratch card, or uses an integrated mobile money service to top‐up their unit. These regular ‘top-ups’ are paying off the cost of the solar system; after typically 18 months customer fully owns the system and can use renewable energy at no further cost. The payback period is carefully tailored by region by region in order to price the weekly top-up as much as 50% lower than what customer’s previously spent on kerosene and mobile phone charging.