Bake Bread While the Sun Shines: Solarbakery for Off-Grid Rural Communities

The smarter E Podcast Episode 100 | July 14, 2022 | Language: English

Electricity shortages on the African continent represent a sensitive obstacle to economic growth and ensuring public utilities - on the other hand, Africa's enormous solar potential offers a seemingly obvious solution to this problem - but how can the appropriate infrastructure be provided to exploit this potential? Stuttgart-based start-up SOLARBAKERY is addressing the issue with an off-grid solution for producing baked goods in solar-powered container bakeries. These create jobs and contribute to the basic supply of food for the population in a climate-neutral way. How does a Solar Bakery work, what is the business model behind the idea? What are the biggest challenges? Does the current development in the European solar industry also have an impact on the solar market in Africa? We talk about this with Simon Zimmermann, CEO and founder of SOLARBAKERY.

Timeline

  • 2.30 How does a Solar Bakery work and what is the business model behind the idea?
  • 6.46 About the financing of the idea
  • 10.50 What are the biggest challenges in the target countries in terms of implementation?
  • 17.40 What about the prospect of being able to produce technical components or machines for solar bakeries directly on site in the future?

About The smarter E Podcast

The smarter E podcast is all about the current trends and developments in a renewable, decentralized and digital energy industry. Our moderators Tobias Bücklein and Zackes Brustik welcome and interview personalities who shape our industry and drive developments forward. A new episode is published every Thursday.

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About Simon Zimmermann & Solarbakery:

SOLARBAKERY is the world’s first provider of fully equipped, mobile and energy independent container bakeries. These innovative bakeries can be purchased with individual branding, rented as part of a franchise system, and will also be operated by SOLARBAKERY. Their socio-entrepreneurial approach guarantees fair working conditions at our locations.

Simon Zimmermann successfully established a container bakery in the capital of Congo already during his studies in "Management of Social Innovations". The success and potential for bakeries worldwide prompted him to found SOLARBAKERY GmbH, to which he contributes his accumulated experience in fundraising, management and project implementation. He founded Solar Bakery together with the experienced social entrepreneur Torsten Schreiber, who has been working for electrification in Africa's villages for many years with "Africa Greentech", as well as Daniel Petruccelli, master baker.

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