Sun Shade Energy team wins Negawatt Accra challenge

Team Sun Shade Energy has won the Negawatt Challenge Accra, with its solar-panelled house cooling system, and will represent Accra at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona this November.

The group developed a product designed to protect homes from excessive heat by blocking sun rays and ultraviolet radiation, while capturing and storing solar energy with the shade in the process.

After much deliberation, the judges chose their invention ahead of team ASOR’s, who developed a real-time SMS messaging system of areas of town that experienced electricity cuts.

The Negawatt Challenge is a global competition by the World Bank and iSpace Foundation, aimed at making cities more sustainable and energy-efficient by empowering communities to innovate around local energy issues.

Accra was one of four cities selected to host the challenge “because of their local governments’ commitment to resource efficiency and green growth, as well as their dynamic and growing entrepreneurial, ICT and technology sectors.”

The Negawatt Challenge Accra began in March with 14 teams presenting their ideas to an audience and 5 distinguished judges.

Four teams were then selected to continue on in the process, and entered into a 3-month, tailor-made bootcamp to help refine their ideas and make them viable with guidance from experienced mentors in business development, finance, marketing, startup legalities and software and hardware training.

By Emmanuel Odonkor