Startups

No more moaning about tower power

A UK startup has invented an ammonia-based power source for the mobile industry.

07 June 2011

If this is meant to be a revolution, it doesn’t look much like one. I’m hobbling across Afrox’s Germiston depot towards a small container perhaps 2m on a side. Because of the possibility of heavy cylinders landing on your toes, you have to wear uncomfortable steel-tipped boots inside certain areas of Afrox – hence the hobble. My two hosts are Diverse Energy chief scientist Rob Priest and newly appointed chief sales and marketing officer Doug Batchelor, formerly of Microsoft South Africa and Nortel South Africa.

Priest opens the container. Inside are eight cylinders of Afrox ammonia, something that looks like a tea urn, some air-conditioning equipment, fuel cells and an electronic controller. What I’m looking at could be the future of power generation for mobile networks in Africa: the PowerCube.

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