The Negawatt Challenge Hack to Hold in Accra, in March, Will Tackle Urban Energy Problems

Accra, Ghana, is the second city on the Negawatt Challenge train, which will later move on to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) on March 10, 2015 and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). According to a press release from the World Bank, the Negawatt Challenge is an open-innovation competition that will leverage a variety of cities’ rich ecosystems of innovative entrepreneurs and technology hubs to surface software, hardware and new business solutions. Together, these components are capable of transforming these cities into more sustainable places. The cities were picked through initial assessment of energy efficiency potential with the Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE). “We picked these cities because of their local governments’ commitment to resource efficiency and green growth, as well as their dynamic and growing entrepreneurial, ICT and technology sectors, which we learned about through conversations with residents, policy makers and technical experts from these cities,” was stated in the release. The hackathon is in multiple phases. The first is the Challenge Definition Day – like a ‘naming day’ where experiences and observation of inefficiencies will be gathered from representatives in the public and private sectors.The inputs will be merged with collated data from World bank and will be converted into concrete challenge statements. The second phase is the Local Meetup Day will allow local experts and entrepreneurs to contribute and comment on noted challenges, while the third phase the Negawatt weekend is the stage where participants form teams and compete with one another on the specific challenge statements draw from the first two phases. The team will pitch potential solutions before a jury and the better ideas will move on to the next phase as semi-finalist. The fourth phase is the Negawatt Bootcamp where there will be training and coaching full both on-site and online to bring ideas in full swing. The event rounds up with the Global Demo Day, semi-finalist from all the regions will compete. Team will upload their demo videos on the Negawatt website and Kickstarter page and the winner will be picked by public voting. The Ghana edition of Negawatt Challenge is hosted by iSpace.