Hundreds of millions of people worldwide still live without reliable electricity. That gap blocks jobs, limits education, and holds back entire local economies. For the communities most affected, the main grid isn’t coming anytime soon, and that’s exactly the problem Husk Power was built to solve.
William Brent is Chief Marketing Officer at Husk Power the world’s largest provider of renewable energy mini-grid systems operating at scale across Africa and India. William brings a rare global perspective to energy marketing, leading growth in some of the most complex and high-impact distributed energy markets in the world, from rural Nigeria to fast-growing residential solar in India. He is also an Advisor at Fria Frio, TUM SEED Center, Foodstead, and Co-Owner of <b> marketing + communications.
In this article, William breaks down what it actually takes to build and scale a distributed energy platform in markets where the infrastructure, the capital, and sometimes the data are all working against you.
Keep reading for William’s clear guidance on this topic. (And check out the full podcast episode here.)
Husk Power was founded in India about 17 years ago as a mini-grid company. A mini grid acts like a small local utility. It generates power, then distributes it through local networks to serve a defined community, often far from the main grid. Since then, the model has expanded significantly.
Today, Husk operates across three distinct business units:
This mix matters for more than just product diversity. It spreads risk, creates multiple growth paths, and allows Husk to serve very different customer needs within the same market. Some customers want basic lighting and phone charging. Others need power for agricultural processing or cold storage. The platform is built to reach both. The long-term goal is two gigawatts of assets across all three units by 2030.