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Outside-the-box innovation for off-the-grid energy
Andreas Jaegle (MBA 2014) and his Harvard University colleagues use the Harvard Innovation Lab as a co-development hub for their startup, elementa energy solutions, which brings low-cost electricity to the most underserved communities in the world.
In this multidisciplinary collaborative setting, Jaegle, an MBA candidate who co-leads HBS’s rowing team, met with a Harvard College strategist who surfs, a brilliant inventor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Harvard Medical School physician-in-training with United Nations water-purification experience. Together, they developed a breakthrough model for delivering electricity to off-grid populations in the world.
“There are 1.2 billion people who have no access to electricity,” Jaegle says. “Millions cannot afford grid power or rely on it; elementa uses proven technology in a solar-thermal process to generate electricity, cheaply and sustainably. It has substantial advantages over alternatives—and it works!” Through an “Energy as a Service” financing model, even the poorest communities will be able to afford reliable electricity for irrigation, education, health care, and communications.
“If HBS has taught me anything,” Jaegle says, “it’s that now is the time to take risks. I’ve never been more optimistic about our power to step up and truly make a difference.”
(Published April 2014)
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