Okra Solar, a leading mesh-grid technology provider, on Friday, unveiled Mesh-grid Beyond, a suite of new hardware that will help Nigerian energy developers power communities not on national grid, deploy projects faster than traditional approaches allow, and reach everyone from the productive to the lowest-consuming households.
According to CEO of Okra Solar, Afnan Hannan, Mesh-grid Beyond, an integrated solution that changes the fundamental economics of rural electrification revolves around three new products: Sprout, Leaf and OkraNet.
“Our mission has always been to unlock opportunities through energy access. Mesh-grid Beyond gives Nigerian developers the tools to scale faster, hit productive use, and electrify communities that were previously out of reach,” Hannan said.
These products upgrade Okra’s existing mesh-grid: a solution electrifies communities in a Hub and Spoke approach, giving high quality service tailored to the needs of businesses and households, at lower cost and with faster deployment than traditional mini-grids.
Sprout puts productive users at the centre of mesh-grid design as Hubs. Configurable with up to 2.4kW AC output, Sprout units reach 99% of the productive use in a typical community and anchor the mesh-grid around businesses that drive economic growth. It’s an integrated design that arrives to the field pre-configured and pre-wired, saving hours per installation, while housing electrical components in a sleek enclosure that also deters power theft.
Leaf rewrites the economics of rural electrification by enabling a revolutionary price point of under $100 per connection for the majority of households. With mini-grids, over 80 per cent of users are considered unprofitable to serve, because their consumption is so low. Leaf addresses exactly these households.
It creates household spokes that take excess power from Hubs, with a meter that leverages OkraNet technology and provides 150W AC power for the majority of household usage, such as phone charging and lights. Even households consuming less than 5kWh per month become profitable, opening up more communities to become commercially viable with attractive payback periods that satisfy both social impact goals and investor returns.
OkraNet liberates energy developers from depending on cell coverage. Using advanced networking technology, OkraNet allows data to ‘hop’ between households to a central gateway that can be connected to satellite internet or 3G/4G, meaning any community can be energised and handle reliable billing, remote monitoring and automated maintenance. If you can physically reach a community, you can now power it.
The true magic happens when these products work together. Consider a typical last-mile community, embodying every challenge: remote location with no mobile signal, a few productive users surrounded by predominantly low-income households using minimal electricity, and a grant program requiring commissioning within 12 months, not years.
Previously, this community would be written off as impossible. With Mesh-grid Beyond, it becomes a standard, profitable project. With 90 million citizens lacking electricity access – the world’s largest off-grid population, the country also offers developers unprecedented opportunity through progressive regulations and the ambitious DARES (Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up) program.
Before now, the challenge has been execution: how to serve remote communities with no mobile coverage, connect low-income households profitably, and do it all fast enough to meet aggressive expansion targets.
According to chief executive officer of First Electric, Daniel Komolafe, “Okra’s new products are game-changing. People in Burum have loved having it in their homes, and in the next year we’re going to be using them to deploy faster, reaching more communities, and I’m confident that we can maintain profitability.”
The suite represents a fundamental shift in the industry: from carefully selecting profitable customers to achieving profitable universal access. Every developer can now embrace the full mission of electrification without compromising financial sustainability.
With Nigeria’s universal access goals and Mission 300 targeting electricity for all by 2030, the window for action is narrowing. Developers and financiers are scrambling to get into the DARES program, which is supercharging the industry’s efforts.
Mesh-grid Beyond arrives precisely when developers need it most: delivering proven technology with superior reliability and twice the deployment speed of mini-grids. Mesh-grid Beyond cuts the grant requirement in half compared to mini-grids, giving the Nigerian government more connections and reach for less funding, and it’s the first off-grid technology that demonstrates a pathway to full grant independence.
Nigerian energy providers can begin deploying mesh-grids with the Beyond suite immediately. The complete solution is field-tested, DARES-compliant, and ready for scale. Okra Solar provides comprehensive support including training, project planning assistance, and dedicated technical backing for large deployments.
