Africa's Energy Problem Is Also an Opportunity
Nigeria alone has hundreds of millions of people with unreliable grid electricity. Solar adoption is accelerating — but two massive barriers exist:
- Knowledge gap — most consumers and installers don't have the training to install, maintain, and size solar systems correctly
- Access gap — quality solar equipment is hard to find, inconsistently priced, and difficult to verify
SolarHub was designed to address both barriers in a single mobile application.
The App Architecture
SolarHub is two apps in one:
The Academy (eLearning)
- Structured courses on solar installation, sizing, and maintenance
- Video lessons with offline download capability
- Certification upon course completion
- Target users: aspiring solar technicians, homeowners, installers
The Marketplace (eCommerce)
- Solar panels, inverters, batteries, charge controllers
- Verified seller programme
- Price transparency across competing suppliers
- Integration with logistics partners for last-mile delivery
Why Flutter
We chose Flutter over React Native for SolarHub because the app needed a custom UI system. The solar calculator tools required complex interactive UI — custom sliders, animated diagrams of system configurations — that Flutter's widget compositor handles more naturally.
// Solar system sizing calculator
class SolarCalculator extends StatefulWidget {
@override
_SolarCalculatorState createState() => _SolarCalculatorState();
}
class _SolarCalculatorState extends State<SolarCalculator> {
double dailyConsumption = 5.0; // kWh
double peakSunHours = 5.5; // Nigeria average
double get recommendedPanelWatts =>
(dailyConsumption / peakSunHours) * 1000 * 1.25; // 25% safety margin
}
The Impact Potential
Every certified solar installer trained through SolarHub represents dozens of correctly installed systems. Every verified equipment purchase reduces the grey market. We're not just building an app — we're contributing to energy infrastructure.
