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About 6 million people in Sierra Leone do not have access to electricity, which is why a startup in Wilmington has chosen that country as an area of interest for its products and services.
KWHCoin, a blockchain-based renewable energy company, plans to install over 50,000 solar power systems in Sierra Leone in 2019 with the help of its partnership with Teleficient Communications, a triangle-based telecommunications company.
Plans to create a new way of distributing electricity began five years ago, when BWHCoin's founder and CEO, Girard Newkirk, began the research.
KWHCoin has five employees in Wilmington with a tekMountain office, as well as collaborating global partners and consultants, Newkirk said.
KWHCoin works by tokenizing solar energy surplus.
When someone uses a solar energy system to power their homes, it may have residual energy that has not been used. If they are still connected to the utility power grid, they can send this energy to the service company, which will result in an energy credit that they can use on a winter day.
With KWHCoin, instead of sending that excess energy to the service company, that energy can be tokenized into a KWHCoin.
A KWHCoin is rated at 1 kilowatt hour which is deposited on an online wallet.
That online wallet is part of a software platform developed by KWHCoin, which will be an app where users can see their balance and can exchange, sell and buy energy.
"We are building an app that will allow them to exchange their peer-to-peer colleagues, allowing them to become their energy company," said Newkirk. "That extra energy that you really do not really have a way to track or measure value, we're unlocking it and enabling it to allow people to become their own energy producers."
The app has been tested in beta and will be completed in three to six months, said Newkirk.
KWHCoin raised $ 1.1 million in its initial currency by offering two days of private sale and around $ 300,000 during the offer.
One of the features of KWHCoin is that it will reduce the cost of electricity by freeing up some taxes and providing a more flexible energy consumption service, Newkirk said.
"The cryptocurrency allows us to reduce the cost because you can sell it within kilowatt hours and can use it as a medium of exchange," said Newkirk.
"They may not be able to afford to pay in advance for a month of electricity, but they can buy daily kilowatt hours".
KWHCoin would make it easier for people to have reliable energy because they have a whole service platform, he said.
"We are not just a software platform, we are like an ecosystem," said Newkirk.
"We have other partners who provide other services such as microgrid construction and renewable energy resources development.We will not only develop the software platform, but we will also enter a 21st century service company and help build the infrastructure. energy ".
KWHCoin has also partnered with Lucy Njuguna and Stanley Gitau in Kenya to develop "Nurse in Hand", an application and a web application that maps a car accident and alerts paramedics and other emergency responders on the scene.
"The biggest point of friction is that they do not have emergency management services to cover their main avenues," NewKirk said. "We are going to establish first aid centers along this 800 mile stretch of road."
The Nurse in Hand app has already been completed and started its first mission tests in October, he said.
KWHCoin also plans to provide assistance to Puerto Rico, especially after the country was hit by hurricane Maria.
Newkirk said he had identified the municipality of Orocovis as the area of Puerto Rico they want to work with.
"There are many mobile parts regarding the project on the grid, but we still have connections with the mayor of Orocovis," said Newkirk. "Our plans are to use it as our use case for how we can create our grid based on natural resources in one of the most remote areas of the world."
KWHCoin offers an introductory course to the Blockchain cryptocurrency at the Cape Fear Community College with the long-term goal of preparing the community for the technology industry.
"We want to use it [the class] as a platform to build North Carolina, in particular the Wilmington area, as a technology center, "he said." We believe it will be the fuel that will stimulate the 21st century economy and Wilmington has a great opportunity. to be on the front line, "said Newkirk.
With its products and services, KWHCoin hopes to decentralize energy and promote a localized energy source for communities.
"We want to empower people so that we can use the sun, we can use water, we use our natural resources for energy," said Newkirk. "It presents the opportunity to create its own completely renewable, completely sustainable energy economy".
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