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our guest today is
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ben shell co-founder of li maypow a
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rural electrification social business
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startup
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in haiti ben thank you so much for
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joining us today my pleasure
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what does lemieux power mean in haitian
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creole it means your light
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so we wanted to give it our business a
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name that people would understand
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immediately
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and light is really probably the most
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important use of electricity
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in uh in rural areas of haiti can you
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tell me a little bit about the
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uh rural electrification situation in
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haiti
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and how that led to the genesis of your
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project
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sure so there's there's three of us
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co-founders starting the business
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myself another american name dan
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bierenbaum and a haitian american named
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duquesne fednard
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so duquesne grew up in a rural area of
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haiti
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and since went to the united states
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became a u.s citizen
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and has worked and gone to school there
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but
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he has after the earthquake came back to
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haiti
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and um really wanted to help
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develop the country and and heal the
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country
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and he had a vision for
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energy as access to energy is a really
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important
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way for that to happen so
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haiti has the lowest rate of
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electricity use per capita in the
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western hemisphere
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and it's estimated very difficult to get
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good statistics but estimated that less
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than 10 percent
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of people in rural areas in haiti
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actually have access to a grid
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so there's a huge huge need there
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and this is an this is a need that
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duquesne was was looking for ways to
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to solve and a couple years ago
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dan who went to grad school with
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duquesne um
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started talking to him about some
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emerging technology
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that could that could contribute to this
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and i actually knew dan
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from uh from before so he brought me in
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and
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and so we started our business great uh
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what is your business trying to
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accomplish
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so our goal is to electrify rural areas
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of haiti using renewable energy
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and it's simply that we think that this
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can bring
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a lot of benefits to people starting
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with light
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and how that helps you study at night
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for the kids
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and improve education and also you can
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generate income
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additionally additional income because
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you have good light to work at night
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where
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kerosene lamps right now are are really
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difficult to read
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much less to do any other kind of work
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so that's that's where we start and then
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we hope that
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as people can use more electricity and
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we can generate more
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and provide more per household and per
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business that they can actually use
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new appliances and
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equipment to start new businesses or
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expand businesses
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and sort of looking in the local economy
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import less from the outside uh other
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parts of haiti
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and even internationally and and make
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more locally and even start to
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export things and so generate more
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wealth that way
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and then finally i think eventually when
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people can use
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cooking appliances that use electricity
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they can really and also and also
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potentially washing machines and things
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like that
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they can save a tremendous amount of
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time on household chores
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and that can i hope really affect the
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free time that women
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and girls have and really help them uh
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gain more equal opportunity um
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in haiti i think that's a really
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laudable set of
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objectives uh i know that in other parts
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of the world such as africa
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some of the risks of kerosene lamps etc
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uh have been dealt with by people trying
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to use solar power
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uh to to address those needs
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can you explain your technology and and
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how it differs from say using
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led lighting and solar energy to solve
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the same issue
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sure so we're using gasification
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technology which
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is not a new technology it's been around
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for 100 years or so
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um but there's new versions of
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small-scale gas fires coming out
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which make it economic for us to deploy
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it in
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a rural area um and create a business
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around
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generating and selling electricity so
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what that what
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how that works is you take biomass
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and we're using um actually i have right
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here we're using corn cobs
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um here's the corn cup from from rural
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haiti and this is basically treated as
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trash
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in haiti farmers will take this
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after they take the kernels off they'll
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they'll basically just throw it away or
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they'll burn it when they run out of
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charcoal
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for stoves so using this
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you put it into our our system which
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creates charcoal out of it
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and then eventually through combustion
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and another process called reduction
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creates
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a gas two types of gases carbon monoxide
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and hydrogen gas h2 which are both
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combustible gases
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and you can run through an engine and
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and burn just like you can run propane
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or
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another kind of gas through through
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engines so
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we're really excited about this because
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it's a lot cheaper to deploy than solar
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so if you want to have a solar system in
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a standalone solar system
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then you need batteries you need
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inverters you need solar panels
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and the batteries especially are very
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expensive and and
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difficult to maintain so a solar system
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is going to cost
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of a similar size as our gasifier would
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cost
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two to four times as much so
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we're really excited about this new
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technology which will allow us to make a
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business
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that is sustainable that can grow and
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serve
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the huge need that exists in haiti and
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in other countries too
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so how many people would this
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technology serve initially and how would
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you plan to scale it
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so we have one system now which we're
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planning to pilot
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uh this summer we're supposed to launch
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that this summer
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and that system can serve anywhere from
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100 to 200 households
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um and it really depends on how much
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energy each household uses but
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we're talking about pretty small amounts
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of energy
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between you know 60 and 300 watts per
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household
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so that system should serve
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as our pilot but then we can add more
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systems onto that we can add bigger
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systems
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and our goal really is to make this
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pilot successful
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and prove that people will be willing to
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pay for electricity
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at a price that allows us to uh
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to to grow basically to make profit
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and to pay back our investment costs and
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to grow and to attract investors
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who are not probably uh hedge funds or
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anybody looking for
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20 or 30 percent returns but but social
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investors who are have patient capital
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who want to make money but who really
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care about how they do that
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and really interested in helping the
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millions of people
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in rural haiti and the billions of
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people throughout the world that don't
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have access to electricity now
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so speaking of investors what is your
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source of funding
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at the moment and how sustainable is it
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so right now we're
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funding ourselves through the
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co-founders
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we're putting in our own time and effort
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and money and we're also we've also
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won some some business plan competitions
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which have given us some grant money
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that's designed to basically get us to
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the point where we can launch the pilot
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um and so we're we're going to launch
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the pilot and hopefully make that work
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and then once we have a model that works
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we can take that to investors
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and and see if they can help us grow
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but haiti is one of the poorest
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countries in the world
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how does that affect your aspirations
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well i mean i think haiti is a really
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difficult place
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to do business but i think we have a
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great team
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especially with duquesne and his and his
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knowledge and connections in the country
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um so
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i think we're well positioned as well
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positioned as anybody in that country to
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get things done
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and i think we see so much need
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in haiti that that's really where we
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want to be in places
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in haiti or places like haiti because
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that's where
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there's need and difficulty which
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also correspond to opportunity so we see
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it as a lot of opportunity
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how important is it to have a local
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partner um
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well i mean duquesne is is he's a
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haitian american so
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i mean he's not he's not 100 local he's
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not 100
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foreign he's a mix between the two but
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but he's the reason why i'm involved
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in this business is because i met him
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really inspired by
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his vision and the work that he had
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already done in haiti
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and i thought he'd be a great partner
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and so far we've we've done a lot
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together
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can you tell us a little bit about what
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have been your toughest challenges so
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far
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and what have you done to address those
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challenges
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sure so um there's been a number of
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challenges um
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i think getting things done
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in in rural haiti has been just slower
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than i would have expected i've
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i've worked in developing countries
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basically my whole career
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um but it's it's a little bit it's
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slower than it has been in other
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countries and more difficult in some
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senses
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but that's also on the flip side has
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been really surprising in terms of
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how open and excited and supportive
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the government has been for us
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so they are really encouraging us and
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and supporting us to launch this
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pilot um the frame the legal framework
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around it is quite flexible so
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they are interpreting it in a way which
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um
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which is really encouraging us so i
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think that's been that's been surprising
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and and been great um the technology
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itself
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um we're sourcing from uh from the
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united states
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and it's actually taken longer than we
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thought to adapt that technology
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to the the reality that we see in rural
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haiti so that's also been
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been a challenge so where would you say
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you need help the most
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um i think
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i think what we're really going to need
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where we're really going to need help
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is in the future once we've gotten our
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pilot
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up and running getting the funding
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and finding the right partners that can
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provide funding for us to grow
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i think we're very business-minded
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but we also have a very strong
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commitment
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to making sure that electrification
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really helps people and creates new
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opportunities for people
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and it's not just about electricity but
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it's also about creating new
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opportunities and
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economic growth and and social change in
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rural haiti so i think
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finding the right partner that also has
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that vision is probably the most
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important thing for us
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what's been your most inspirational
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moment so far
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um i think working with farmers
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in in rural areas especially in the
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village where we're planning to
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to do the pilot working with the farmers
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in that community has been incredibly
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inspirational because
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they are really really really really
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want
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electricity to come and they've been
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really supportive and they
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are really an inspiration in terms of
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how hard they work and
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and the vision they have just for their
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own community so we're just trying to
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form a strong partnership with them and
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uh and together i think we can
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we can do we can do a lot of great
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things
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and one final question where do you what
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do you see happening in the next six
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months
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so um launching the pilot is the biggest
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uh the biggest thing in the next six
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months
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so after six months we should have
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launched that pilot
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and be working out the kinks in terms of
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the operational model
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and starting to hopefully raise money to
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expand
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ben thanks thanks a lot and all the best
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to you and limia pow
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thank you very much michael i appreciate
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the time
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you
