National Geographic helped advance the cause of sustainable energy for off-grid communities by crowning the winners of the Terra Watt Prize — the first competition of its kind — on June 11 in Washington, D.C. As torchbearers for cleaner, safer, and cheaper energy alternatives for the global poor, co-champions Mera Gao Micro Grid Power (MGP) and EGG-energy Tanzania Limited (EGG) beat out over 50 other teams to split $250,000 in grant money to implement their winning ideas.

MGP, headed by India-based Nikhil Jaisinghani, used its extensive experience building, owning, and operating low-cost, solar-powered microgrids to edge out the competition with its innovative proposal to provide poor, off-grid communities with quality indoor lighting and telephone-charging services in Uttar Pradesh, India. MGP will use its $125,000 prize money to set up 140 microgrids, each providing power to roughly 25 households for up to seven hours per night.

EGG, which currently provides affordable, clean-energy solutions to rural communities in Tanzania, impressed the judges with its proposal to install mobile-connected, rent-to-own solar systems in Tanzania’s Tanga region. EGG’s co-founder Jamie Yang developed an integrated IT system that allows customers to make payments via mobile money and provides remote diagnostics to troubleshoot system problems.

Link to the rest of the article.