Solar charging an electric bicycle
A Karaa battery does not care where its electricity comes from. Solar systems charge it as happily as the grid.
The best charging network in rural Africa was built for lights and phones: millions of solar panels on roofs, kiosks and mini-grids. A Karaa battery plugs into all of it.
The battery is removable and charges from any ordinary socket, which means any solar system with an inverter can fill it. A home system charges overnight; a trading-centre kiosk charges while you work the market; a mini-grid does it faster. About 520 watt-hours fills the long-range battery, roughly what a mid-sized panel gathers in a good day.
That closes the loop that petrol never could: transport fuelled entirely off-grid. A rider in a village beyond the last power pole can run an electric bike on sunlight, carry a full load 100 km, and spend nothing at a pump, ever.
It works in both directions. We are also developing ways for the same battery to run lights and a small pump after the ride, so the bike could double as the household power supply where the grid is a rumour.
We have demonstrated exactly this in community launches with energy partners, riders charging from solar infrastructure and riding away. The photo above is one of them.
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