Solar charging an electric bicycle
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. After the ride, the same battery runs lights, charges phones and drives a small pump, so the bike doubles 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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