At SimpliPhi Power, we believe that access to clean and affordable energy is fundamental to economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability – and building our collective future globally. Since our founding 10 years ago, we have committed 1% of our annual revenue to people and communities in need of access to energy, and have built a network of partners, funders, collaborators, and community leaders to expand our impact.

We call this initiative the IDEA: Deliver Energy Access.

A long-time collaborator, Footprint Project, demonstrates how with the right partners we can amplify each organization’s mission and scale projects to serve diverse communities around the world.

What’s the Footprint Project’s big IDEA?

To #BuildBackGreener after disasters by providing cleaner energy to communities in crisis.

Our partners help the IDEA come to life.

Over the course of 10 years, we have witnessed the positive global impact of energy access through collaboration with incredible mission-driven companies and organizations. As a result, the IDEA – to Deliver Energy Access – was created to give our community of partners an opportunity to take action with us towards our collective goal – affordable energy for all. Our partners can help the IDEA come to life by submitting projects for consideration or committing their resources – equipment, engineering services, and funds up to 1% of  annual revenue – to the cause. Together we can build a more sustainable world and  solidify our impact.

IDEA partner Footprint Project provides resilience to communities in need.

Energy access is a core need in times of crisis. As such, we are excited to have longstanding SimpliPhi nonprofit partner Footprint Project as part of the IDEA network of game changers!

Footprint designs and builds mobile renewable energy + storage emergency response trailers that are deployed during urgent disaster recovery efforts to communities that otherwise would not have power during large scale grid outages and catastrophic events. Footprint Project’s relentless commitment to building deployable and sustainable energy resources, utilizing PHI batteries, creates critical resilience to support communities in crisis and helps drive the IDEA of energy access to all forward.

Recently, Footprint, SimpliPhi, and others provided relief to communities in Texas during the 2021 Winter Storm Uri by coordinating a donation of 10 PHI 3.8kWh batteries  to the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) and Fayette County Emergency Management (FCEM). Read more about it here.

Oscar Ruiz (Footprint Project, Sail Relief Team) witnessed firsthand that SimpliPhi products were a versatile, vital resource to have on the ground to address immediate needs during the Texas storm.

“We also had a couple of [PHI batteries] hooked up to the Sol-Ark in one of the ITDRC trailers, so any moment they gotta deploy they just literally unplug it and roll it down the road and they got at least 12-24 hours of comms and internet and Wi-Fi that they can work with, without having to worry about, ‘Where’s the generator?’  ‘How do we run this?’  ‘Did we bring enough diesel?’” says Ruiz. “They literally can just throw them in and just bring like, two or three days of energy storage with them and not have to worry about a generator or putting out solar panels or anything like that.”

Footprint and SimpliPhi recognize that emergency energy solutions are also sustainable beyond the recovery period. About a month after using these donated energy systems during the storm, emergency personnel continued to use the battery system to power a mobile COVID vaccine clinic, aiding in the vaccination of Fayette County, TX.

“After a disaster, these types of systems become a resilience asset that emergency managers, firefighters, police and medical workers can use to support long term resilience in their communities.” says Will Heegaard, Operations Director at Footprint.

In addition to the Texas storm, Footprint and SimpliPhi also worked together in 2020 to power a 24/7 COVID-19 ‘pop-up’ clinic at the Matamoros Migrant Camp of 3,000 asylum seekers in Mexico at the US border. Read more about that collaboration here.

Footprint’s IDEA to #BuildBackGreener

Footprint Project has provided aid in numerous disaster scenarios that grant them the insight into why renewable energy access is a vital resource that the world must consider for the good of the environment as a whole – whether in times of crisis or in day-to-day life.

“You can’t do much without a plug.” says Heegaard regarding what steps one can take when the grid goes down. He continues to point out that in times of crisis, many turn to fossil-fuel solutions, which Footprint recognizes only intensifies the CO2 and GHG emissions that are the cause of climate change behind these natural disasters.

“Most of disaster relief, if not 99% is fossil-fuel powered.” states Heegaard. “So, one of the amazing things for us about being part of the IDEA campaign is that if we can deploy sustainable energy assets rapidly into disasters during crises, that allows the folks affected by those disasters to truly build back greener and avoid both the negative feedback loops and everything associated with dealing with a fossil fuel generator.”

The IDEA supports Footprint Project’s mission to #BuildBackGreener by promoting projects and donating safe, non-hazardous PHI batteries as part of its commitment to dedicating 1% of SimpliPhi’s annual revenue to high impact energy access projects. The ultimate goal is to create energy access for all, particularly during times of crisis, to create resilient communities empowered by renewable energy with clean energy storage for power 24/7.

Heegaard also believes that Footprint’s involvement in the IDEA will further their goal to #BuildBackGreener. “Through the IDEA, we can break that negative feedback loop of fossil fuel disaster response and empower communities to ‘plug-in’ and build back greener in real time.”

Want to learn how to get involved in the IDEA? Click here.

Support Footprint Project and take action towards aiding disaster relief here.