MAVUNO
Productive-Use Energy
Understand locations, the economic activity around them and where energy can support productive businesses.
Productive-use energy site evidence in East Africa
Solar irrigation, milling, cooling and similar investments are justified by the farming activity around the site. If that activity is assumed rather than seen, the demand case rests on nothing anyone can inspect.
Mavuno shows the farming around a proposed or existing site: how much land nearby is cultivated, how the seasons run, and the rainfall patterns that shape when demand would peak. Distances between the site, groups of suppliers and markets are shown on a map.
For energy financiers and programme teams across Kenya and East Africa, this grounds the demand assumption in dated observations. Mavuno does not size systems, model tariffs or calculate payback. It supplies the evidence about place those calculations depend on.
A solar pump, mill or cooling unit only pays for itself if there is enough activity around it: land that can be irrigated, produce to process, markets within reach.
That activity can be seen from above, and it is often claimed with more confidence than anyone has actually checked.
Questions we hear
- What farming is happening around the proposed site?
- How much land nearby looks irrigated or cultivated?
- How does activity nearby change through the year?
- How close is the site to markets and collection points?
- Which demand assumptions still need confirming with customers?
What we can show
What Mavuno adds to the question.
Drawn from free public satellite and rainfall information, plus whatever the business chooses to share with us.
- Around the site
- What the land immediately around the site is used for.
- Signs of irrigation
- Areas that look like they are irrigated during the dry season.
- Access to markets
- How far the site is from production areas and markets.
- Activity through the year
- How farming activity around the site changes through the year.
How it runs
From your question to your answer.
- 01Ask: agree the site and demand question.
- 02Locate: set the site, the service area and the market catchment.
- 03Understand: look at the farming and economic activity around the site.
- 04Explain: show what surrounds the site and how confident we are.
- 05Decide: you receive the pack, with the customer checks still needed.
Example
What a pack might answer.
Business question
Does the agricultural context around this proposed site support the stated demand assumption?
Proposed installation site and 10 km service area
What the pack would show
- Cultivated-land share within the service area
- Vegetation signal consistent with dry-season irrigation
- Distance profile to the nearest market nodes
What you gain from it
A grounded view of the productive activity surrounding the site, with the demand assumptions that still need direct customer validation clearly flagged.
Limitations
- This example is illustrative. It is not an assessment of any real business.
- Satellite information shows physical conditions, not commercial facts.
- Every real pack states its own limits, for its own place.
Common questions
Asked before a pilot.
- Does Mavuno size the system or model payback?
- No. We show the farming and weather conditions around the site. Sizing, tariffs and financial modelling stay with the developer and the financier.
- Can it show how many farmers are near a site?
- It can show how much land nearby is farmed, where it sits and how far the stated customers or suppliers are. Counting households needs a survey, not a satellite.
- What is needed to start?
- Your question, the site location or proposed area, and anything the business is willing to share with us.
Where it is used
Who uses this evidence.
- Asset finance and lease underwriting
- Results-based finance verification design
- Programme siting and expansion planning
Other sectors
Have a business question that depends on place?
Tell us the question and the place it concerns. We will say whether Mavuno can add useful evidence to it, and what it would not settle.