Exciting news! We’re pleased to announce our involvement in the upcoming HydroWheel project commencing in April. HydroWheel is the world’s first inflatable waterwheel, which will float across rivers and streams to generate affordable, accessible renewable energy with less damage to the local ecosystem. The innovation’s commercial and impact potential in sub-Saharan Africa is huge.

We are thrilled to be a part of this project, which aims to determine how HydroWheel can commercialize and optimize the design of its innovation to provide an alternative (or complementary) technology to incumbent renewable energy technologies. The project will ultimately satisfy the electricity needs of underserved communities throughout SSA, starting with Uganda.

CREEC will be responsible for the Pilot Project Development phase in Uganda, which involves community engagement, location screening, and technical field studies. Our other partner, MicroGen, will use its “ISMO” GIS tool to survey river valleys in the target areas, identifying suitable sites and providing market and industry knowledge to support business plan development.

Challenges Catalyst and Challenges Uganda will support HydroWheel to create a viable commercialization strategy to exploit the innovation, including market sizing, identifying value chain integration opportunities, business and financial modelling, and route to market strategizing.

We are thrilled to be part of this project. Stay tuned for updates!