Support for Mobile Phone Chargers at Tanzanian Schools... SK Ecoplant Becomes an Energy Angel

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] In the outskirts of Tanzania, Africa, the lack of an electricity grid means that to charge a mobile phone, one must walk 4 to 6 hours to a charging station in the city. Charging mobile phones is usually the responsibility of children. It is common for children to miss school in order to charge the family's only electronic device, the mobile phone.

SK ecoplant is launching a mobile phone charging installation project at local schools for Tanzanian children. On the 23rd, SK ecoplant signed a cooperation agreement for the installation project of 'Solar Cow' with York, a domestic solar startup, at its office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The Solar Cow, developed by York, is a solar charging station shaped like a dairy cow equipped with solar charging panels. One Solar Cow can charge 250 'Solar Milk' portable phone batteries. Through this cooperation, SK ecoplant plans to distribute three Solar Cows and 750 rechargeable portable batteries, Solar Milk, in Tanzania. The signing ceremony was attended by Park Kyung-il, president of SK ecoplant, and Jang Sung-eun, CEO of York.

When Solar Cow is installed at schools, children come to school to charge their Solar Milk batteries and attend classes during the charging time. After school, they can take the Solar Milk home to charge their phones. The installation of Solar Cow solves the local energy shortage problem while also improving child welfare.

Solar Cow has been recognized for contributing to energy supply and child education improvement in developing countries and was selected as one of Time magazine's Top 100 Innovations in 2019. It is also scheduled to receive the 'Innovation Award in Sustainability, Eco-friendly Design, and Smart Energy' at CES 2022 in January next year.

SK ecoplant plans to develop a carbon reduction program that members can voluntarily participate in daily, convert the accumulated activity mileage into an internal fund, and continuously donate to Africa and other countries in need of electricity supply.

Yoon Jang-seok, head of SK ecoplant ESG Center, said, "We deeply empathized with the Solar Cow method, which contributes to solving global social problems in an innovative way, and decided to cooperate."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.