Black Star Energy Ltd. provides affordable, sustainable electricity to the 125 residents of Affulkrom for the first time in their lives. 

1.3 billion people do not have access to grid-powered electricity and an additional 700 million do not have reliable electricity to support their daily lives. The people of Affulkrom are no longer amongst this 2 billion.

To cope with a life without electricity, people making between $350-$700 per year resort to purchasing kerosene lamps, batteries, and generators – spending between $75-150 USD per year – up to 40% of their income on poor substitutes for electricity.  In addition to the high cost of these substitutes, kerosene lamps, open cook fires, and diesel generator fumes are responsible for millions of deaths each year. Lack of access to reliable electricity also reduces life expectancy rates by preventing delivery of health care, stymying economic expansion and encouraging the growth of mega cities as people leave their home communities for access to basic services.​

By giving the rural community of Affulkrom reliable access to electricity, Black Star Energy has given its residents a brighter future.   ​

The residents of Affulkrom now benefit from electrical power in their homes that costs a fraction of what they previously paid for basic lighting and cell phone charging alternatives.

The power that Black Star Energy provides is solar powered, which is sustainable and reduces future oil price shocks globally, and also reduces the impacts of deforestation, climate change, and the more immediate impacts of home pollution caused by toxins like kerosene and diesel.

While many energy access companies provide small solar panels capable of powering a lightbulb or charging a cell phone, we are able to support a wide range of customer needs — from the use of fans, TV’s, refrigerators, and sewing machines, to powering commercial refrigeration, restaurants and bars, health clinics, schools, grain mills and cold storage.  By providing scalable electricity, Black Star Energy is partnering in rural communities’ economic development.

QUOTE FROM Anthony K. Gyebi, Chairman of Affulkrom: “We never expected that throughout the whole country [Ghana] we the people of Affulkrom are the first to receive solar powered lights. It brings us great joy because to charge our mobile phones was even a problem for us; some mobile phones were going missing, phone batteries were either stolen or exchanged at the phone charging centers. Having electricity here today brings all these hardships to an end. All we want to say is, we thank God for making it possible.”

QUOTE FROM Nicole Poindexter, CEO of Energicity Corp. and Black Star Energy Ltd:  “We are so pleased to have built our first minigrid in Affulkrom. Turning on the lights at Affulkrom is a high point of my career, which has been dedicated to doing work that has a positive impact in the world.  However, nothing has been so powerful or rewarding as working side by side with local masons, electricians, carpenters, machinists, and engineers to develop a project that will have such a meaningful and direct impact on people’s lives and the planet.  We of Energicity and Black Star Energy are excited about what we’ve achieved, and are dedicated to the work there is to come, with millions more in Ghana, hundreds of millions more in Africa, and billions more in the world without sustainable, affordable, scalable electricity.”

QUOTE FROM Nana Kwadwo Owusu, Board Member of Black Star Energy Ltd and Chief of the community of Atonsu in Ashanti Region Ghana.  “As soon as I realised that there was a capable team committed to providing reliable power at reasonable cost using renewable resources to off-grid communities in Ghana, I just had to join this initiative. I am looking forward to continuing to partner with Ghanaian communities to address their energy needs.”

About Black Star Energy Ltd:  Black Star Energy is the Ghanaian subsidiary of Energicity Corp – a US-based corporation committed to ending energy poverty through out the world.   Black Star Energy Ltd develops projects that combine renewable power and grid infrastructure with Energicity’s software proprietary platform, which combines big data and smart metering, behavioral science and mobile payments to provide affordable, sustainable, scalable power. Black Star Energy Ltd was the first company to be licensed to develop and operate a solar powered microgrid commercially in Ghana.   Black Star Energy has contracts with six more communities in the Ashanti Region of Ghana reaching 2500 people, and is working with other communities to deliver electrical service after completing these first six projects.