By Randy Mtetela, Freelance Reporter- Johanneburg
The Empire Partner Foundation is challenging young software developers and tech entrepreneurs to seek digital solutions to address some of the energy sector’s most pressing challenges.
The tech non-profit organization hosted an energy hackathon recently, an event that was supported by a host of energy partners both in industry and within the EPF ecosystem.
The challenges ranged from envisioning the power needs to quantifying the benefits of renewable energy projects.
The quest by Empire Partner Foundation comes at a time when the country is now pinning its hopes on renewable energy to resuscitate South Africa’s frail energy sector.
State-owned power utility Eskom, which provides over 90% of the county’s electricity, has over the years implemented multiple bouts of load-shedding, much to the detriment of the fragile economy.
Now, the Empire Partner Foundations wants tech to be at the center of firm steps to bring additional generation capacity online as quickly as possible to close the shortfall.
At its event, developers had 48 hours to come up with a solution to one challenge, and teams then presented these solutions in a short pitch to a judging panel.
Top teams progressed to the final judging round to pitch against each other in pursuit of three grand prizes.
Team Juvinae Tech came first, receiving R8000 for their solution to the Juvinae Smart Energy.
“This is a business networking platform for all players in the renewable energy space. The main players are Independent Power Producers, renewable energy companies, and potential investors of renewable energy projects, says team leader, Letlhogonolo Koikoi. He explains that the platform allows all players to engage on projects that have been approved by the Juvinae team.
“As a team, we feel so good that we won. It was a surprise that we won. Unexpected. We were all shocked when we saw our team’s name as the winning team. Perhaps that’s because we were not so focused on winning as a team and more on coming up with a great idea to present to the judges. The competitiveness of this competition was not felt from our end as we were a virtual team working from home and were unable to see any of our competition.”
To the organizing team, this hackathon event was especially important, and their hope was for the event to inspire a generation of young energy leaders — a hope, according to them, that seems to have been fulfilled.
Jasmine Mokwena, the Face of EPF, and Marketing & Hackathon Event Coordinator says that “energy is one of the 10 challenges EPF focuses on as it impacts the livelihood of South Africans and hinders economic development drastically by slowing down production, healthcare, food hygiene, profits, and creating road accidents from traffic light outages”.
Empire Partner foundation was formed in 2016 with aim of finding digital solutions to societal challenges.
The foundation works with developers on scalable ideas to create new solutions using technology to impact social change and increase sustainability.
The Johannesburg-based tech non-profit organization is seeking to grow an ecosystem of African developers that use technology to improve communities on the continent.
The post EPF Seeks Tech Solutions For Energy Crisis in South Africa first appeared on The African Gazette.