Robert Mutsaers

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2007

Robert Mutsaers

Green Power

http://www.gpower-africa.org

Kiangurwe, Kenya

Community Improvement & Economic Development, Environment

The Bold Idea:

In Kenya, fewer than 4 percent of rural households are connected to the national power grid because conventional electrification schemes are too expensive for the rural poor to afford. Even if the annual connection rate doubled, it would take almost 400 years to connect the existing rural population.

By creating a cheaper, simpler, and community-driven solution, Green Power will greatly accelerate the rural electrification process. In partnership with rural Kenyan farmers, local leaders, engineering companies, and universities, the organization will realize decentralized micro-hydro energy and distribution systems. To ensure sustainability, these systems are largely financed, constructed, operated, and owned by co-venturing local communities. As a result, rural Kenyans will be able to use electricity at home, have the ability to start new businesses, and gain access to formal credit markets. Additionally, using this clean energy source will result in the preservation of resources, the reduction of environmental damage, and can bring considerable health improvements through reduced air pollution. Green Power's immediate target is the completion of a model project with rural communities on Mount Kenya, which will provide electricity to its 2000 registered members.

Biography:

Robert Mutsaers, a designer and construction supervisor from Holland, moved to Kenya in 2002 to renovate a lodge on Mount Kenya. He attributes a meeting with local farmers for sparking his interest in creating Green Power in order to develop a new solution for rural electrification. He spent the past two years designing hydro-electric mini-grids and building the first 100-kilowatt prototype turbine to realize this dream. 

Moment of Obligation: What experiences led to the desire to start your own organization?
By the end of 2001, I met my current partner spurring the rural electrification initiative through a meeting with local farmers who desired access to electricity. During this meeting, I became fascinated with the challenge to overcome and understand contemporary socio-economic inefficiencies that impede rural electrification programs.

Gall to Think Big: What has given you the ability to dream big and take on deeply entrenched problems in the world?
In order to create sustainable electricity cooperatives in Africa, we understand that rural electrification programs should be customized and tested in conjunction with the local population. We believe that it is the responsibility of local leaders to identify inefficient and unnecessary webs of action that limit social and economic progress. During partnership with local leaders and farmers, existing socio-economic inefficiencies gain transparency and become a responsibility of the local population. We are confident that when rural electrification projects are utilized as a tool to educate and train local populations, access to sustainable scale-up becomes possible.

New and Untested: What’s innovative about your new idea for social change?
Our organization builds electricity generation plants and isolated power networks in order to provide pragmatic solutions to inefficient webs of action within the social environment. Green Power aims to electrify on district-scale and enters in a partnership with ten communities simultaneously. During the first year, this program filters the most efficient and motivated community based organization, which then becomes the model project for scale-up.

Seeing Possibilities: What are the most important qualities to be a successful social entrepreneur?
Spurring social change requires reconciling personal balance with an expectancy of the rigidness of existing social structures. Understanding the availability of knowledge does not mean that it should be commonly shared. A social entrepreneur must expect inevitable frustration when engaging in social change. The prime motivation should be this learning process or better understanding that it is expected that you become the medium of this process.

Which musical artists/albums get you going and keep you inspired?
Classical music: Mendelssohn, Bizet. Jazz/Blues: Bill Withers, Chet Baker, Al Green. Rock/Alternative: The Walkabouts, Feist, John Legend, John Martin, John Butler trio.  Cult: Jose Gonzales, Ali Farka Toure.

What books do you recommend?
Pleasure: Pearl Game by Herman Hesse, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, The Black and The Red by Stendhal, The House on Tara Road by Maeve Binchy, Abyssinian Chronicles by Mozes Isegawa, The Last Smoker by Herman Brusselmans, The Fourth Man by Frederik Hermans, and The Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins. Work: The works of Robert Elias, Jurgen Habermas, Talcott Parsons, and Maslow. Poetry: Joseph Brodsky, Jan Campert.

Which websites do you visit often?

• questia.com
• sciencedirect.com

What advice or quote do you keep close to your heart as a social change leader?
Believe in the translation of realities. This provides you with the capacity to understand responsibilities through patience.