Life in better light
Over the years, EGG Energy, co-founded by MIT and Harvard University engineering and business students, has garnered public praise as the “Netflix of electricity” for rural Tanzania. In the region outside Dar es Salaam, the nation’s capital — where only about 6 percent of households have grid access — EGG equipped off-grid homes with battery systems that powered several LED light bulbs, mobile chargers, televisions, radios, and other electronic devices for several days. Paying a subscription rate or fee per swap, homeowners returned drained batteries to charging stations, erected within walking distance and run by local entrepreneurs, and collected fully recharged batteries — much like exchanging DVDs via Netflix. By 2013, EGG had provided about 1,000 homes in the region with these systems. EGG aimed to improve the quality of life for families and business owners, but also sought to solve health and environmental issues by replacing hazardous and polluting kerosene...