Who knew that horses would become the key source for a new invention that creates light? The idea came from a horse-loving husband-and-wife team at SEaB Energy Ltd.: Chief Executive Officer Sandra Sassow and Chief Technology Officer Nick Sassow. The duo was trying to solve the problem of stepping on horse manure in the dark.

“[Sassow] told her husband that he needs to come up with a way of taking this manure and making a light so that ‘I can see what I’m doing and not [step] on the manure.’ And that’s how the idea came up, turning poop into energy,” said Tania Pinto, sales and marketing executive at SEaB Energy.

The company manufactures waste-to-energy technology with its containerized anaerobic digestion units, called the Flexibuster and Muckbuster, which turn organic waste into energy. The units are ideal for small and medium-scale sites that produce between 500kg and 3000kg of organic waste per day.

Pinto spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at The PeaceTech Lab at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., as part of theCUBE’s special AWS Public Sector CUBE Conversation series. They discussed how SEaB Energy put “power in a box” to help tackle climate change.

Digital technologies enable sustainable development

This U.K.-based company is one of the partners of the Berkeley – Andhra Smart Village program, a collaborative initiative between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the University of California Berkeley. The initiative aims at empowering, improving and connecting villages while enabling sustainable development by leveraging digital technologies. SEaB set up a Kickstarter campaign to help deploy these systems in India and expand in remote places where there is currently no access to energy.

The magic behind the scenes is the anaerobic digester, which breaks down microorganisms and turns them into a source of energy where infrastructure can reach. The research and development work was conducted in house, and the systems are fitted into shipment containers. The systems can collect data and remotely monitor that data. SEaB has teamed up with Amazon Web Services Inc. to come up with a user interface that is more attractive and customizable, according to Pinto.

“The technology is complicated to explain sometimes, but being with a group with different backgrounds helps us to deliver a cleaner message,” she said.

Being part of the PeaceTech Accelator program, which was created to assist citizens in conflict zones and create stability, helps SEaB achieve its mission of making green energy. The other startups participating in this year’s cohort are SuperFluid Labs, TerraBlue XT and One Relief.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations at the AWS public sector headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Photo: SiliconANGLE