Xavier Helgesen

Xavier is the co-founder of Off-Grid Electric, a San Francisco clean energy startup that has created an all-in-one solar/battery system for people living off the grid in developing countries.

The origin of OffGrid for Xavier came when, "I went hitchhiking one time in Malawi, and ended up staying in an off grid village for a number of days. Seeing that for the first time, what life was really like at night there with everyone walking around with a kerosene lamp and having to find a place to charge my phone that really stuck with me". Later as he discovered that 1.3 billion people were living off the grid, he began to think that distributed solar power systems could "make a real impact on people's lives, not just save them money, but really, really change their lives". Xavier frequently gets very vigorously thanked by his customers, "You can imagine what a joy it is for some of the customers who live deep out in the rural areas maybe twenty miles from the nearest power grid, and they never thought they were going to get power. And now their kids are studying under the lights at nigh,t and they are catching up on the evening news on satellite TV without any power connection. And its all happening at a price they can afford. And they are getting ownership of something so they're not just paying a bill forever".