The two men initially received about $200,000 each for four years to build off-grid solar minigrids in the 20 kW-25 kW size range. After four years, they received additional funding and built 40 to 50 minigrids, bringing the fleet to 12 MW, funded by an ISV investment of $119 million. ISV expects the two entrepreneurs to double the number of people ISV entrepreneurs reach with electricity to about 4 million.

​Green Village Electricity, launched in 2012 with a single solar microgrid and seed money from ISV, has reached more than 25,000 households and businesses in Nigeria. According to the ISV retrospective, it has created 920 direct jobs and more than 3,000 indirect jobs. The company aims to become Nigeria’s largest and most efficient electric utility and serve millions of customers with sustainable energy.

The IEEE Foundation, which raises money from outside sources such as companies and retired IEEE members, helps fund ISV.

Other ISV projects include the Africa Development Promise, which focuses on improving the lives of rural women through training and resources that help them compete in the marketplace. ISV funded a microgrid that powers the organization’s training center in Uganda. The center offers vocational programs that develop marketable skills.

Solar farm cuts farmers’ post-harvest losses.

In Rwanda, ISV helped finance a solar farm packhouse and cold storage facility for a cooperative that helps farmers reduce post-harvest losses and generate income by renting space during off-season, according to the ISV retrospective.

“Our goal really is not so much parachuting technology. Our goal is to find local leaders and nurture local leaders so that they can be the owners of the technology deployment, they can have community engagement, and then they can make self-sustaining and long-lasting impact,” Kapur said.

​ISV generally works with entrepreneurs remotely because it doesn’t want to disrupt their operations or worry about caring for ISV personnel. With this model, local people learn from each other.

​“That's the other part of our model: there's a lot of peer-to-peer learning. These are smart people,  and they have access to the same internet that you and I do. The one thing that they often lack is access to funds and a local Home Depot,” Kapur said.

​Attracting entrepreneurs, donors and volunteers

​Others interested in this strategy should broaden stakeholder participation by attracting donors, applicants, and volunteers, Kapur said.

​ISV finds applicants at conferences and from regional IEEE committees, he said. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) bring the community connection and IEEE supplies the engineers.

​“It’s a bit of a challenge because as engineers we think that if we make a black box and toss it over the fence, all the problems of the world are solved,” Kapur said. That’s why NGOs' community connection is critical, he added.

​In addition to finding stakeholders, it's important to empower local communities to lead the projects, using their knowledge of their communities.  Such efforts should also invest in education and local technical capacity so there are enough local engineers, technicians, and entrepreneurs to maintain and expand the projects.

​“We have these superstar entrepreneurs, but we don't have enough of them,” Kapur said. To date, ISV has provided electricity to 4 million people, but 800 million still lack electricity.

“I’d like for us to hit 50 million at some point,” he said. “There’s really a lot to be done.”