The IDEA: Deliver Energy Access
The IDEA: A Simple Promise.
Donate 1% of Annual Revenue every year to High Impact Projects that Deliver Energy Access.
Power for the People.
SimpliPhi Power believes access to clean and affordable energy is fundamental to economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability - and building our collective future globally.
2020 was our 10 Year Anniversary. Since founding, we have committed 1% of our annual revenue to people and communities in need of access to energy. Now, we invite global partners to join us in this IDEA – to Deliver Energy Access - by formally submitting their projects for consideration or committing 1% of their annual revenue to the cause. Together we can build a more sustainable world and amplify our impact.
SimpliPhi is a member of the UN Global Compact and the Unreasonable Impact Group, a UN-sponsored program of companies committed to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals address the major social and environmental issues of our times. Integral to our global compact to create a better world is to support projects with the IDEA of dedicating 1% of annual revenue to Deliver Energy Access.
SimpliPhi manufactures safe, reliable, and affordable energy storage solutions with deployments in over 40 countries.
SimpliPhi believes responsible manufacturing, job creation, and innovation is at the heart of social justice and economic opportunity.
SimpliPhi fosters partnerships with both for- and non-profit organizations that commit to making the world a better place.
The IDEA is to make an impact.
There are two ways to participate:
We have closed submissions for the annual 1% IDEA campaign for 2021. We are thrilled to have received so many project submissions. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to partner with you to create high impact projects! We are currently reviewing all the applications and expect to make announcements mid-March. Stay tuned!
Individuals and companies can contribute equipment, expertise, or financial support by contacting us here.
2020 IDEA Recipients
Partner: JustEnergy
Mission: To create jobs and combat energy poverty in northern Haiti
Project: Powering the IDADEE orphanage with resilient solar + storage
The IDADEE is more than an orphanage, it is a pillar of community life and vital connection to education, health, and medical resources in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.
Founded by young adults who grew up in an orphanage on the island, IDADEE Children’s Home is a community development nonprofit organization that supports the needs of more than 40 children and members of the surrounding community.
The IDEA donated 20 SimpliPhi 3.8 kWh batteries to pair with on-site solar power and to replace and upgrade the facilities current toxic lead acid system, providing resilient clean energy for the community and saving money on energy production every day. Project partners include JustEnergy, Justice & Mercy Energy Services, Pittsburgh Kids Foundation, and Brace For Impact!
“Our understanding is that the source of poverty comes from our broken world: broken relationships with the environment, with each other, with our creator, and even with ourselves,” said JustEnergy’s Board of Directors upon being selected for the IDEA. “When the conditions of poverty violate the inherent dignity that all people have, an injustice has occurred. Energy poverty is the lack of access to modern energy services such as electricity. It is a hindrance to human flourishing and dignity: one of the broken systems of our world that we strive to change.”
Partner: Border Green Energy Team
Mission: To implement renewable energy and sustainable technologies and demonstrate how these technologies are integral and economically viable aspects of improving livelihoods
Project: 40-bed hospital and COVID testing laboratory
The Karen community of southern Myanmar has a rich history and cultural heritage and are currently struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and political upheaval in their country.
The IDEA partnered with the Border Green Energy Team and Karen Department of Health & Welfare to install a 76-kilowatt-hour energy storage system to provide resilient power for the community’s Covid facilities and medical resources.
The Klo Yaw Lay Covid Response Center comprises a 40-bed hospital facility, a two-story laboratory that houses PCR-based Covid-19 testing equipment, and a -20 C freezer for vaccine storage. With the installation of a resilient and sustainable energy system, they can ensure access to medical care to support the community through the pandemic and for years to come without the use of a polluting diesel generator.
Other Featured Projects
Partner: Empowered by Light
Mission: To empower vulnerable communities who are on the frontlines of climate change, loss of wildlife and environmental devastation
Project: Akashinga, a women-only team of anti-poaching rangers
Photo Credit: Brent Stirton
Photo Credit: Brent Stirton
With many of Africa’s key species, including elephants, reaching levels near extinction, Akashinga is a radical, new and highly effective weapon against poaching.
Founded in Zimbabwe by former Australian special forces soldier and anti-poaching leader Damien Mander, the women-only team of rangers, drawn from the abused and marginalized, is revolutionizing the way animals are protected, communities are empowered— and its members’ own lives are being transformed.
Mander’s innovative approach to conservation calls for community buy-in rather than full-on armed assault against poachers. If a community understands the economic benefits of preserving animals, then it will eliminate poaching without an armed struggle.
Empowered by Light is a mission-driven organization empowering vulnerable communities who are on the frontlines of climate change, loss of wildlife and environmental devastation.
“Climate change disproportionately affects the poorest, most vulnerable communities around the world. Whether it’s helping preserve healthy ecosystems, improving learning conditions or powering economic development, access to renewable, reliable energy builds healthier, more resilient and sustainable communities and can literally save lives.” - Moira Hanes, Empowered by Light
Partner: It's Time Foundation
Mission: To deliver renewable power solutions for remote Pacific Island schools with the dual objectives of reducing carbon emissions and enhancing education in the target communities
Project: Energy Storage for Island School Solar Panels
Much of the Vanu Primary School was destroyed in the 2016 cyclone Winston and rebuild is now complete. The teachers’ quarters are wired and the school has a good, but expensive to run, generator that supplies 2 to 4 hours day time power and 4 hours evening power for the teachers’ and night study.
Many island schools struggle with no electricity supply – or rely on dirty diesel generators they can barely afford to run a couple of hours per day. The kids have little or no chance of a modern education. Its Time Foundation, with the generous support of its partners, provides clean, free energy for lighting and computers and utterly transforms the education and prospects for these kids. It can mean the start of computer education at the school. And the money saved on generator fuel creates decades of cash flow to buy desperately needed computers and other education resources. Helping kids get a good education is also a neat way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
"With technology such as SimpliPhi storage so readily available these days, it’s such a simple and logical solution that utterly transforms the life prospects for these kids." - Rob Edwards, Founder It's Time Foundation
Partner: GRID Alternatives
Mission: Making solar power and solar jobs accessible to all
Project: Ojo Encino, Navajo Nation
GRID develops and builds solar projects serving low-income communities. Our model saves families money, prevents carbon emissions and launches solar careers.
Renewable energy can drive economic growth and environmental benefits in communities most impacted by underemployment, pollution and climate change. GRID Alternatives is a national leader in making clean, affordable solar power and solar jobs accessible to low- income communities and communities of color, and our energy access work is powering off-grid communities across the globe. GRID’s vision: a successful transition to clean, renewable energy that includes everyone. Since 2004, GRID has installed nearly 65 megawatts of solar for over 17,000 households, providing $438 million in estimated lifetime energy cost savings, while training over 32,000 people in solar installation skills.
GRID Alternatives’ National Tribal Program has worked since 2010 to help tribal communities across the United States achieve their renewable energy goals. Using a community-centric approach, we partner with Tribes to identify, develop, finance and implement solar power projects that meet community needs, including education, hands-on training, and energy cost reductions for tribal members.
Native American communities experience disproportionately high levels of poverty, unemployment, and resource exploitation. In the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American territory in the US, the 15,000 homes without electricity represent 75% of all un-electrified households in the country. In early 2020, SimpliPhi batteries were used for an off-grid solar system for a member of the Ojo Encino Chapter of Navajo Nation in New Mexico. This system will allow the resident to now do what many others may often take for granted: run a refrigerator to keep food and medications fresh, use lighting at night, and operate fans or heaters during hot and cold weather. This is all especially important now that so many are homebound due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Indigenous Nations are often the first to experience the effects of climate change and are looking more and more at renewable energy for cost savings and jobs in the clean energy sector. With batteries provided by SimpliPhi, GRID Alternatives has been able to bring cutting-edge storage technologies to tribal communities, increasing tribal resiliency and energy sovereignty in the face of climate-disasters.” - Tim Willink, GRID’s Director of Tribal Programs.
GRID looks forward to installing more donated SimpliPhi batteries with the Sherwood Band of Pomo Indians in Northern California over the next year.
Partner: Footprint Project
Mission: Provide Cleaner Energy for Communities in Crisis
Project: Pop-up Intensive Care Unit
Just south of the U.S. border below Texas lies Matamoros, Mexico. Home to over 500,000 Mexican citizens, Matamoros additionally hosts a migrant camp of 3,000 refugees, most of whom are from Central America and Cuba, are seeking asylum in America. Living in close quarters with virtually no access to basic hygiene products or medical care, this community was at severe risk of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak spreading through the camp and surely claiming the lives of many. In collaboration with the Footprint Project and Rent.Solar were able to deploy a microgrid capable of supporting a fully functional pop-up COVID-19 clinic.
Given the remote location of the refugee camp, access to reliable power and medical resources combined with the contagious nature of COVID-19 put the refugees of Matamoros in the middle of what could have been disastrous. In order to provide a properly functioning medical clinic, the team needed renewable energy with enough energy storage to power lights, ventilators and other essential medical equipment.
SimpliPhi’s 3.8kWh PHI batteries were part of a containerized mobile, solar and energy storage trailer that served as a primary power source for the pop-up ICU. The ICU provided 20 beds with both diagnostic and treatment-ready medical equipment, including ventilators and an HVAC system to deliver temperature control for the two-tent clinic.
The mobile clean energy microgrid also supports significant savings for the Global Response Management (GRM) team, the NGO that is operating the facility and providing free medical care to the migrants. As first responders coordinating care, the solar + PHI storage allows GRM to dedicate its resources to providing critical and quality medical care instead of deferring precious funding to monthly fuel costs averaging $2,000 that would have been necessary if the ICU was powered by a diesel generator.
The IDEA provides critical renewable energy resources to empower communities globally with the goal of making a positive impact on social, economic, and ecological living standards consistent with the UN SDG’s. At the end of each calendar year, a Request for Proposals (RFP) is published on our website that outlines the criteria and review process for potential recipients to submit projects for consideration.
Recipients of the IDEA are selected each year by a review committee that weighs need and the impact that a resilient clean energy project will have on a community.
In addition, SimpliPhi Power and IDEA partners will make further donations throughout the year when the opportunity or need arises – for example, the winter storm disaster in Texas where SimpliPhi donated in support of recovery efforts alongside Footprint Project in 2021.
The RFP submission period to determine 2021 IDEA recipients has been closed. We are currently reviewing all the applications and expect to make announcements mid-March. If you have any questions, please contact us at IDEA@SimpliPhiPower.com.
The IDEA is a growing alliance of organizations, businesses, and private donors.
For 10 Years we have been able to amplify our impact
through partnerships (UN SDG #17).
If you share our belief that profit is inextricably tied to the health
and wellbeing of people and the planet - join us!
Partners Dedicated to the IDEA
Committed to breaking the negative feedback loop of fossil fuels, Footprint Project's mission is to help #BuildBackGreener after disasters by providing clean energy and resilient energy storage to communities in crisis. Footprint’s commitment to the IDEA helps to deploy clean technologies alongside emergency responders for immediate lifesaving efforts, displacing the need for polluting diesel generators and supporting a long-term, resilient recovery. www.FootprintProject.com
New Sun Road is a California-based public benefit corporation developing data-driven IoT technology solutions for solar-based power systems that reduce operating costs and increase control and visibility. As an IDEA partner, New Sun Road donates technology solutions and expertise for projects each year in support of community energy access. www.NewSunRoad.com
With their industry leading all-in-one inverter charge controllers, Sol-Ark believes in easy, affordable solar for everyone. Sol-Ark is an engineering and manufacturing company based in Parker, TX that provides turnkey design solutions and fanatical engineering support for customers and partners globally. Sol-Ark is a reliable IDEA partner that is committed to donating balance of system equipment and technical expertise to the initiative each year. www.sol-ark.com
While many take for granted their access to efficient, safe, and reliable electricity, life after dark stops for millions of people in the developing world. As a committed IDEA partner helping to deploy renewable energy systems, Twende Solar aims to eliminate poverty, strengthen economies, protect ecosystems, and ultimately achieve a more equitable society, and each year contributes to the IDEA. www.TwendeSolar.com
