Solar Buyende Cooperative

Direct

• Clean energy: The solar plant will produce 344,8 MWh per year, allowing the cooperative to run on clean energy only, and eliminating diesel consumption – a reduction of 9.125 liters/year that will avoid the emission of 24.45 tons of CO2 a year, the equivalent of planting 1.111 trees.

• Better working conditions: by increasing the lighting around the plant with external safety lights, the cooperative members will have longer operation hours especially loading milk to the buyers’ trucks during late evenings. The installer will install 3 street lighting modules at the facility at no extra cost.
• Greater financial autonomy: the cooperative currently has 60 members and over 175 non-cooperative farmers termed as “out producers”, with a combined labor force of around 250 people that will be positively affected by this project. Milk producers will get better income because of increased reliability in storage and supply knowing milk won’t go bad and fetching a better price with milk processors.
• More gender equality: the cooperative plans to bring women to leadership positions and has set itself a target of a gender balance of at least 40 % of the core management positions being taken up by women by 2025.
• Job generation: It is projected that with this solar cooling project, the cooperative operation hours will be increased and so will the volume of milk which will create extra job positions. In the long term, this will spur micro-processing of the milk to make products like yogurt, creating over 320 direct and indirect jobs at the farms, shops, and processing plants.

Indirect:

• Impact on the local community: with the increase in job creation, and a stable supply of milk, there will be a trickle-down effect on the local community whether it is tackling malnutrition or education access with parents now better equipped to pay for school fees.
• Reduction of milk waste: Estimates point to 35 % of all milk production in Buyende being wasted due to a lack of timely cooling. Solar coolers are reliable and can provide consistent cold storage for areas with no or unreliable energy access, offering significant impact potential on reducing milk waste to minimal levels.

Founded in 2017, SolarPipo BV is a Dutch holding company, based in Amsterdam. Its shareholders are Ugandan nationals and two Dutch companies - Rockstart BV and Beehaeve. To better deal with all the funding aspects of the group, the holding company created SolarPipo Finance BV, which in turn owns 100% of SolarPipo Finance Limited in Uganda. The latter contracts directly with the dairy cooperatives.

SolarPipo’s main goal is to ease access to renewable energy for the country’s dairy sector. The company provides its customers, typically dairy cooperatives and farmers, access to a cost-effective and reliable alternative to the grid or diesel generators. Their services answer to the whole sector’s value chain: from the financing to the solar system design and installation; to the technical assistance and system maintenance.The SolarPipo team, currently composed of seven people, has a combined experience of over 8 years in the renewable energy sector, product development and management, sales and marketing, team-building skills. Its core has been at the helm of management of startups with a keen eye on innovation.

SolarPipo Finance BV was founded in April 2020. The majority of the shares belong to its Dutch shareholders, with a combined 60 years of experience with Rockstart having the most relevant experience in smart energy ventures and startups.

Dairy farmers’ cooperatives are a growing and very important business sector (10% of the economy) combined with the milk processing industries and transport needed to bring the cooled milk from the farms to the processors. Usually, the milk coolers use sizeable diesel generators for energy. SolarPipo has identified a list of 7 dairy farmers who cannot wait to stop using diesel generators consuming vast amounts of diesel (which can grow easily to significantly higher numbers). Also, there are at least 100 cooperatives on the list of potential customers but also numerous other parties in the dairy sector value chain.