Husk Power doubles its fleet of mini-grids in a year

From the newsletter
Since closing a $103 million Series D at the end of 2023, Husk built over 200 new mini-grids in Africa and Asia, doubling its fleet to 400 in a year. It now owns and operates the world’s largest portfolio of private sector mini-grids and has achieved the industry’s fastest deployment rate since its inception in 2008. 

• Husk expects a growth of over 100% in 2025 and plans expansion into new countries.

• Husk Power Systems now serves 1.5M+ people in rural India/Nigeria, powers 30K+ businesses with 20MW solar, 2,500 km grid, and avoids 15,000 tons of annual CO2 by replacing 3,000 diesel generators.

More details

• In 2021, the company was recognised in the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report as the first mini-grid company to achieve significant scale, by surpassing 100 solar hybrid community mini-grids, and 5,000 small business customers. 

• In 2022, Husk Power signed an Energy Compact with the United Nations in which it set a target of building 5,000 mini-grids and connecting at least 1 million customers. They have surpassed this goal not only five years earlier but by more than 500 million consumers.

• Husk anticipates rapid growth in 2025, aiming for over 100% revenue increase and a 2.5-fold expansion of its customer base. The company plans to pursue pre-IPO equity and debt financing in the second half of 2025 to drive its expansion through 2030.

• According to the World Bank, mini-grids have the potential to serve 490 million people globally, and achieving such scale would require 210,000 mini-grids and $220 billion. For rural Africa and particularly Nigeria which has over 90 million people not connected to the electric grid, there is potential to develop and grow the sector through proper funding.

• The company has been on a recruitment spree. Since 2018, it has grown its workforce 10 times and last year adding approximately 50 new jobs per month and currently has over 1,000 employees and expects to reach 2,500 by the end of 2025.

• Just last year, Husk Power launched PRISM, an innovative containerised clean energy solution that accelerates by 100% the deployment rate of solar hybrid mini-grids and commercial and industrial systems in rural and peri-urban Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. with the new model, the company can easily deploy one minigrid per day.

Our take

• Mini-grids present a big opportunity in Africa, where many rural communities lack access to electricity. They offer a less expensive and more feasible solution compared to extending the main grid, as they don't require the construction of costly transmission lines.

• Many African grids are unreliable, with frequent blackouts that take a long time to be addressed, especially in far-flung rural areas. Mini-grids can help to resolve this issue. Local people can be easily trained to manage and operate their own mini-grids, limiting the time it takes to address any technical challenges.