Winner of the 2022 "Tremplin Start-up" competition of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), entrepreneur Nadjagou Lalle Yentaguime is supporting rural electrification in Togo with his intelligent solar panels.
Travelling to the farthest reaches of Togo, engineer Nadjagou Lallé Yentaguime noticed from one town to the next that the solar street lamps did not light up during the dry season because of the winds that covered them with dust and sand. Faced with this observation, the young entrepreneur launched his start-up Energieaux in 2019, which develops the “Solar Tracker” and “Panel Cleaner” solutions.
The “Solar Tracker” is made from recycled materials and improves the energy efficiency of solar lanterns or streetlights. “I wired the electronics to move in the direction of the sun. As soon as one side of the panel is in the shade, the sensor activates the mechanism by tilting it to the other side. By following the movement of the sun, the device increases the charging capacity by 45% compared to fixed models,” explains Nadjagou Lallé Yentaguime.
The “Panel Cleaner” triggers an automatic cleaning system for solar-powered street lighting installations. According to Energieaux, the system is also equipped with a pump to water the plants “in case they need water”.
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The technological solutions developed by the start-up contribute to rural electrification in Togo. The West African country is banking on renewable energy to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. It is in this context that the Togolese government issued a call for expressions of interest in 2020 for the construction of two solar photovoltaic power plants near Awandjélo in the Kara region and in Sokodé in the Central region. The facilities will have a combined capacity of between 60 and 80 MWp.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
