Illuminating Lives in Rural Africa: Kawaguchi Nobuhiro / CEO, Kawaguchi Steel Industry

"Direct Talk"

Our guest today is Kawaguchi Nobuhiro

who heads a roofing company that sells solar power generation systems.

Kawaguchi is currently working to install solar panels

at schools and public facilities in Africa.

He's tapping renewable energy to supply power

to areas without access to electricity.

He's been working in partnership with the U.N. since 2021

on solar power projects in 16 African countries.

Kawaguchi tells us what drives his company

to help illuminate villages in Africa.

We run a business, so normally

we provide a product or service in exchange for money.

But the joy I get from this is something else.

I want to make this endeavor my life's work.

That's how glad I am that I started it.

Nothing else has made me feel this way.

Kawaguchi is currently in the process of installing solar panels

in the west African nation of Benin.

He travels between Japan and Benin several times a year.

Schools are the primary installation sites.

Most rural areas lack electricity.

In these areas, we installed lightweight solar panels

on top of elementary school buildings

in order to generate enough power to light the school.

We've also set up a kind of recharging station

that takes advantage of the solar panels.

During the day, we charge up portable lanterns

that are then lent out to children at the end of the school day

for a small fee.

So with these lanterns,

they bring electricity back home to their families.

It can be used to light their homes, to charge cell phones,

and importantly, to provide the light the children need

to review what they learned in class that day and study.

That's the main purpose of this project.

Kawaguchi's company is headquartered

in Saga Prefecture in southwestern Japan.

In addition to its work in Africa,

it makes metal fittings for mounting solar panels

to the roofs of existing buildings in Japan.

We mainly work with shopping centers, factories and warehouses.

Japan gets earthquakes and typhoons,

and roofs can't withstand a lot of weight.

So we have a patented lightweight frame

for attaching solar panels to roofs.

We make these frames at our factory.

We took our lightweight solar panels and the know-how we'd cultivated,

and went to Africa to bring light to villages without electricity.

Those are our main businesses.

Kawaguchi was born in 1965

to a family that ran a roof construction company.

He was the eldest of four siblings.

When I was in eighth grade, my father became very sick

and spent many years fighting his illness.

So because of that, I quit school around tenth grade

and promised to take over the family business.

I did an apprenticeship elsewhere,

and then took over the company when I was 23.

But at the time, most of our business came from working

as a subcontractor under a general contractor.

So while we did design some specific elements of the roofs,

mostly we were making what had already been decided on.

I'm someone who likes coming up with ideas,

being creative, and putting my ideas to the test.

So being in that position was very difficult for me.

So I resolved to break us away from subcontracting work.

That became my number one goal.

Eventually, Kawaguchi found inspiration

to take the company in a unique direction.

On TV, they'd show footage of melting glaciers

and other environmental issues.

And I started thinking about all the roof space

available on industrial buildings

and how solar power would likely go mainstream.

But the roofs aren't designed to withstand all that weight.

If we could develop a lightweight solar panel,

there was a blue ocean market opportunity for us.

Since we didn't have the technology to make such panels,

we teamed up with a panel maker

and combined our respective know-how to design it.

Kawaguchi and the solar panel manufacturer

began jointly developing a lightweight solar panel

that was safe to mount on roofs.

However, designing for lightness presented its own challenge.

They have to be both light and strong

so they don't go flying in a typhoon.

Basically, what happens to panels in a typhoon

is that the wind lifts them up,

and they're torn from the fittings and blown away.

You have to make it so they resist wind uplift and hold in place.

So we came up with a design for that,

and then we went back and forth with the panel maker

asking them to add another rail here

or a hole a few millimeters big there.

In 2010, they succeeded in creating

a flexible, super-thin, sheet-like solar panel.

Kawaguchi's company applied its roofing expertise

toward developing special fittings to safely mount the panels.

They began selling the product in Japan.

The price was about five times that of conventional panels,

so it was hard to get companies to adopt our product.

Ultimately, we couldn't compete in the Japanese market.

But then, someone from Myanmar saw me on TV

and started inquiring about the panels.

They told me there were many villages in Myanmar that lacked electricity,

and they thought our solar sheets could be a good solution.

They told us that they were really keen to use our panels.

So we were asked to make a bid for the contract, and we did, three times.

They give you a table that outlines their target contract price,

and it was clear it wasn't going to work for us.

I couldn't understand why the price was so low,

but then I remembered that China was their next-door neighbor.

It doesn't matter if we bring quality products from Japan.

We can't compete in terms of price.

When working with developing countries,

they look at things in terms of how low the initial cost is,

rather than the operating cost.

So we couldn't compete with the inexpensive Chinese-made products on the market.

That was a bust.

As Kawaguchi struggled to get his solar panel generation business off the ground,

he was approached by an old friend

who was working for a Japan-Guinea friendship group.

I couldn't give up, you know?

Then this old friend contacted me.

"So I showed an NGO working in Africa your solar sheets,

and they said they're interested.

Can I arrange a meeting?"

So I met with the NGO.

They said to me, "We think these panels could be really useful in Africa."

And so, two weeks later, I was in Africa.

In rural Africa,

houses have roofs made of straw or other materials

that cannot withstand the weight of ordinary solar panels.

The NGO was convinced that there would be solid demand

for Kawaguchi's super-thin solar sheets.

In Uganda, the first country I went to,

I was able to visit villages without electricity

and see how people were living.

Everyone had cell phones even in the rural villages.

And this was 10 years ago.

And I asked them how they charged their phones.

They were going into town, about two to three hours one way.

I asked them the cost per charge,

and they said they paid the equivalent of between 15 and 40 yen.

Multiply that by 30 days and that adds up.

At that point, I was convinced there'd be demand

for small portable solar cells.

In 2011, Kawaguchi began selling solar panels in Uganda

to empower the people to generate their own electricity.

If you show people our solar sheets, everyone will want them. No question.

But then I told them the price, and their spirits sank.

"What? They're that much?"

So I'd get out my calculator and show them the math.

They were paying 30 yen per charge for their cell phones.

Based on that, they'd be able to recoup the cost in six months.

But like I said, they only see the initial cost.

They're not looking at the long term.

So they didn't sell at all.

But Kawaguchi was not ready to give up.

As he continued to interact with the villagers,

he came to a realization.

I'd traveled there to sell solar cells,

but what I needed to sell them on was the convenience

this would bring to their lives,

the safety and security, the time for their children to study.

Solar panels are just a power source.

I had to convince them of the value that they stood to gain beyond electricity.

I came to that realization.

I couldn't deliver electricity to them on an individual basis,

but maybe I could bring electricity to public facilities,

schools, community halls, street lights and so on

as a kind of official development assistance project.

He realized he could install solar panels for public facilities

with financial assistance from the Japanese government.

He began setting up panels at no cost to the villages,

and the change was dramatic.

The first thing we did was wrap solar sheets around 62 street lights.

And then what happened was... street vendors.

These kiosks started appearing under these street lights.

People were selling things.

They could now do business past midnight.

People started coming from neighboring villages to buy things.

So that got the local economy going.

And thanks to the lights, people could walk the streets alone at night.

It made the streets safer.

I saw firsthand how these small solar cells

brought about such big changes.

It made me realize I shouldn't be selling solar cells themselves.

Instead, I needed to sell them on the idea of safety,

on the value of providing time for kids to study.

Unless I made that the main focus,

the solar cells weren't going to sell.

So I shifted my mindset and began developing.

The solar panels installed on school roofs

also charge portable lanterns

which are rented out for 10 yen each.

The service has brought about a change in children

who were previously too busy with household work to go to school.

We set it up so the kids have to go to school to rent the lanterns.

So they study in the lit classrooms, and then after school,

they take one of these lanterns home with them.

They can be used to light up their homes.

Maybe the mother uses it to do a side job

or to provide light as she cooks.

Or maybe the kid uses it to study.

So that encourages parents to send their kids to school

if they want them to borrow a lantern to bring home.

In other words, they're not just doing agricultural work.

That's the new cycle we wanted to create.

That had a big effect.

Already in the first week after we started renting out lanterns,

the kids were raising their hands in class and speaking up much more.

I think it was because they'd done their homework

thanks to the light.

So the power of light was immediately apparent.

It has an immediate impact on people's lives.

We now understood that.

In 2017, Kawaguchi established an incorporated association

called "GOOD ON ROOFS."

Since 2021,

they've partnered with the U.N. to develop a new donation program.

So our association pays companies in Japan rent

to be allowed to use their roof space.

We set up solar panels free of charge

and ask the company to buy the electricity generated.

In other words, they can shift to renewable energy

without any upfront costs.

In turn, we take what they pay us for the electricity

and pay them rent for use of their roofs.

And we ask them if they'd be interested in returning a portion of the rent we pay

in the form of a donation to help kids in Africa.

When we explain that it's for installing solar panels so children have light,

most companies agree to donate.

The times when I see the kids smiling

or studying hard underneath the lights

are what motivate me to keep this project going.

(Do you have any words to live by?)

"Don't go for the thing itself."

I went in intending to sell solar cells, but no,

you have to draw their attention to the abundance that lies beyond.

Let's work together to generate light.

When you do that, your objectives are aligned.

That's why our solar panels sell.