Jan 30 2011
Envision Solar International, a developer and designer of sustainable infrastructure, has signed a contract with GAIA Global, a Swiss/Finnish Advisory firm in the Cleantech and Sustainable field, with projects all over the globe.
The alliance would facilitate expansion of the company’s LifeVillage and the LifePort integrated Service, product and technology to international aid governmental agencies, companies and other organizations.
Robert Noble, Envision Solar’s CEO, remarked that they had originally developed the LifePort based on the Solar Integrated Infrastructure & Building Systems (SIIBS). The LifePort is a modular solar building system, which could be speedily deployed and was mainly developed to fulfill the demands of those homeowners whose rooftops were not appropriate for PV arrays. But they later realized that a system, which was so versatile and scalable and which when added with battery storage capacity would prove to be very useful in inaccessible off-grid areas and in developing nations. LifeVillage could be utilized to construct clean energy communities all over the world, which would also be self-sufficient and thus help in removing energy poverty from the world.
LifeVillage with its clean solar energy supplies lighting, refrigeration, computer and cell phone charging, water purification, WIMAX & WIFI to the entire community. According to Alain Schilli, Managing Director of Gaia Global, LifeVillage was a holistic concept offering a toolkit to meet basic human requirements in less developed, rural or disaster affected areas. According to him, there was a huge potential for LifeVillage as more than one-fifth of the world’s population does not have access to lighting. By 2015, renewable fuels would be needed by 3 billion people as population growth in the world would put pressure on natural energy sources and even affect long term economic development. LifeVillage’s full potential would be realized through the alliance with Envision Solar. He further mentioned that they were working on projects concepts for two projects in urban areas, one in an advanced and the other in a developing country. Both the show cased projects would be completed by 2011. Schilli further revealed that the company would also assess other technologies, which would be compatible to LifeVillage.