Portable Battery Kit

The IEEE Smart Village flagship product is a modular easy-to-install PV solar-based community charging station named the SunBlazer. Since its inception, IEEE Smart Village has worked to perfect the SunBlazer and hone its franchise model for providing off-grid energy in less developed country (LDC) economies. It has also studied integrated LDC goods and services since electricity, alone, cannot deliver holistic development.

IEEE Smart Village relates across boundaries, incubates new designs most suitable among LDCs, demonstrates sustainable local market enterprise, and educates among linked learning communities.

These goals draw principally on the work of IEEE engineers. IEEE Smart Village aims to deliver just and sustainable development, including education that links learning communities from LDCs and the global north to support expanded deployment of SunBlazers and introduce a longer-term process for growing the human capacity of smart villages.

Simultaneously, reciprocal learning will enrich the knowledge and experience of students, engineers, and development practitioners globally.

The SunGlow PBK is the extension of the Sunblazer that offers a lighting solution for off-grid homes. A homeowner is provided two 3 watt LEDs that remain in the home while the PBK is charged in a community Sunblazer, once charged it can then be transported to the home to power the LEDs and additional small 12 volt loads.

The SunGlow PBK can power both LEDs continuously for 22 hours.  There are two 5 volt USB ports for cell phone charging or powering other USB type loads.

The SunGlow PBK is powered by a LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) battery rather than Lithium ion to provide the greatest safety while retaining the benefits of high power density and lightweight that comes with lithium technology.

A Pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) feature is also included which allows a Sunblazer operator to set up customer accounts for each SunGlow PBK. Using a smartphone, a customers account is automatically debited each time the SunGlow PBK is recharged by a Sunblazer.  The Sunblazer establishes a WiFi zone and communicates directly with both the smartphone and the SunGlow PBK when it’s brought back for charging eliminating the need for cellular service in the area.

The operators business of recharging SunGlows is protected from un-authorized charging by use of a unique digital signature that each SunGlow establishes with the Sunblazer before accepting a charge.  If this signature is not present, the SunGlow PBK with not accept a charge. Additionally, when the smartphone is brought to a location with cellular service, all of the customer data including SunGlow performance history is automatically uploaded to a cloud for archiving and projecting maintenance schedules.

The Sunblazer/SunGlow product is designed to work with a franchise-type business model where the unit is leased to operators and monitored and maintained by trained personnel.

The benefits of SunGlow include:

• optimizes simplicity of operation,
• immediate deployment with no infrastructure at the site,
• high reliability,
• high light output suitable for a family,
• proven affordability at lower cost than kerosene and candles,
• and high pride of ownership by both operators and customers.