Horizons
40 NEWSWEEK.COM JUNE 07, 2019
MOONSHOTS
@julie_pignataroPIGNATAROJULIANA BY
change the world.technology, who highlight their very own moonshots and how they hope to spotlighting pioneers in science and landing on the moon, the director of OffGridBox, a startup Twenty-five-year-old Troy Billett is anniversary of NASA astronauts in anticipation of the 50th Newsweek is
A finalist for the Mto light up villages around the world, rural comBillett wants these 6-by-6-foot boxes ity’s Sustainable Energy challenge, Rashid Initiative for Global Prosper-energy and clean drinking water in ering entrepreneurs on the ground. dedicated to providing affordable munities while emohammed bin pow-
Win more ways than one. to both of these things; by pairing Mpeople across the globe need access them, we can really make a difference.able renewable energy and safe water for the rest of the world. A billion y mhat is your moonshot?oonshot is to provide afford-
We have a small shipping work to provide those things?How does OffGridBox container—fication mechanism inside. Each box feet—on top and a water purican serve up to 2,000 people in a with solar panels 6 feet by 6 -
WWfive-mto solve?rural village. their homaccess to safe water and power in People who never before have had e call our mhat is the big problem you want inute walk to the mes now are able to take a odel the virtual grid. iddle of
their village, where they can get a bat-tery so they can charge a few lights and a couple of phones, as well as get10 liters of safe drinking water—Wfor just 18 cents. For people living on less than $2 a day, this is something they can buy on a daily basis, a weekly basis or pretty much as they wish.How do you decide where the boxes go? e evaluate communities, and we all
Each one takes only three hours to set mup. Of course, we already have per-there’s a need for clean water and electricity, then we will drop a box. work to understand their needs based on surveys. We don’t just assume we know what they want. If we see that comission frommotion in a rural village when local leaders, but the
setting up a box gets people asking questions, wondering what’s going on. This allows us to on-board the customers and explain how it works and its potential. They get a kit—tery pack and a light—home. We also give them a clean jerri-can, which they can fill up with water.to use in their a bat-
need somovercamtem—ground to run the sysThe real barrier that we themselves get involved?How do the communities we can’t stay there e was that we ebody on the -THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOXenergy and water needs of a rural village go model provides access to affordable SXULɿHGZDWHUDQGUHQHZDEOHHQHUJ\Clockwise from top left: A box deployed to Puerto Rico; it takes only three hours to set up a box, which can meet the in a developing country; a pay-as-you-Below left: Billett, OffGridBox’s director.