London, March 2, 2020 (AltAfrica)-South African government is to install wifi-enabled solar street lights to a community in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Already, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deliver the ambitious project has been signed between Think WiFi and GreenCape

READ ALSO: RWANDAN DRONES FOR BLOOD PROJECT SAVES THOUSANDS OF LIVES IN 25,000 BLOOD, MEDICINE DELIVERY

This project, which will be introduced in Witsand, Atlantis, is directly linked to GreenCape’s vision for a thriving prosperous Africa mobilised by the green economy

This vision is GreenCape’s Alternative Service Delivery Unit (ASDU) is about equal and unhindered access for all South Africans to an open, technically-sound, socially inclusive and commercially resilient energy economy.

Traditional models for off-grid electrification have struggled to be replicated across different geographies, especially in South Africa.

The ASDU has been established by GreenCape to design, facilitate and manage the provision of energy services to unserviced and unserviceable communities, on behalf of relevant stakeholders. ASDU applies an adaptive co-design framework to facilitate community-led energy provision.

“ASDU is driving the rapid provision of reliable, affordable and safe energy innovations to address basic needs, drive social development and create jobs,” said Alderman James Vos, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for economic opportunities and asset management, who was present to witness the signing of the MoU at GreenCape.

“ASDU builds the foundation for accelerated socio-economic development and turns the current lack of infrastructure into an opportunity for empowerment,” he added.

Read more: Infrastructures and networks that boost smart cities

ASDU’s electrification approach is built to allow for increased stakeholder buy-in, by providing stakeholders with a collective space to re-imagine energy provision solutions in new and innovative ways. Together with key stakeholders, the ASDU team designs and adapts the process of electrification in close collaboration with existing local community organisations, academia, government and industry.

“This multi-stakeholder cooperation allows for the culture of participation to develop, giving owners of the social challenge control over how technical systems are used, and which functionality underlies the usage of these systems,” said Jack Radmore, the energy programme manager at GreenCape.

The partnership with Think WiFi originated after ASDU enumerated more than 2,500 households in the Witsand informal settlement. This was done with a focus on creating a strong social foundation for service delivery, building an inclusive platform for local community members to express infrastructure preferences, and to understand the communities’ propensity to pay for infrastructure services while also mapping existing infrastructure assets