Agatobwe (Certificate of Incorporation [1]) is a small-scale run-of-river hydropower plant that generates 405 kW for the public grid (Electricity Generation License). The hydro project was originally erected (Environmental Impact Assessment, Certificate and Hydrology Due-Diligence Report) between 2006-2009 by the United Nations. However, the power plant had not been properly designed and suffered from sub-optimal performance.

Malthe Winje AS (MW), a Norwegian company established in 1922, has spent more than 15 years creating a footing and access to projects in East Africa. MW partnered with locals to buy the plant in 2018 to optimize electricity output (Technical Feasibility Study). From 2019-2022 the company completely renovated and upgraded the waterway, refurbished the powerhouse and replaced technical equipment with state-of-the-art Norwegian hydropower-technology. MW also installed an operation & ctrl. system that allows them to remotely operate the plant day-to-day and monitor it 24/7 (Commissioning Report [2]). This has other benefits too as they are teaching the local workforce, stationed on the site, via live chat to operate the Agatobwe hydropower plant.

With support from the Norwegian Government Grant Agency (NORAD), the Norwegian competence center for international exchange (Norec), and the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (NORFUND), MW is well positioned to scale crucial renewable energy infrastructure in the area.

Nonetheless, MW is underserved by traditional project financing. Realizing the potential of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), MW seeks to actively re-finance its operational projects by issuing digital debt securities on Ethereum. The “AgaTobwe Token bond” (ATT) is the first in a series of tokenized bonds backed by MW projects.

The renewable electricity production of Agatobwe is recorded using immutable Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices physically installed on-site. The IoT devices are overseen both by MW and Energy Utility Corporation Ltd. (EUCL), the Rwanda government utility. This IoT data is stored, near real-time, on MW Microsoft Azure Cloud Infrastructure and published directly on this website (see Historical Energy Chart).

The average annual electricity consumption per capita in Rwanda 40 kWh / year [3]. The estimated annual electricity output from Agatobwe of 2.2. GWh / year, and therefore equivalent to supplying ~55’000 individuals with clean and stable electricity in Rwanda.

We leverage the electricity production of Agatobwe to give ATT Creditors instant information on the operating revenue (see Agatobwe Finances) and avoided greenhouse gas emissions.

The avoided CO₂e emissions are calculated using methodology (Avoided-Emissions-Methodology) used by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental agency. It provides an estimate of the carbon avoided [4] due to an uptake in renewables. By adding more renewables to the overall electricity production mix, the carbon footprint will decrease versus the status-quo. The carbon that has been prevented from entering the atmosphere is denoted CO₂e^Avoided

For example, it is estimated that Agatobwe will generate 2.2 GWh of electricity in 2022. Assuming that Rwanda has the same non-renewable electricity mix in year 2022 as it had for year 2020 (62% Natural Gas and 38% Oil), the avoided CO₂e as a result of replacing the non-renewable electricity mix with renewable electricity generated by Agatobwe is given by:

CO₂e ^Avoided = 2.2 GWh × (62% × 469 + 38% × 840 – 4) tCO₂e / GWh

CO₂e ^Avoided = 1,390 tCO₂e

The values 469, 840, and 4 represent the GHG emissions per GWh (tCO₂e / GWh) from Natural Gas, Oil, and Hydropower respectively.

However, to get a holistic view, we believe Agatobwe’s avoided emissions needs to be weighed against the GHG from the ATT smart contract, denoted CO₂e^{Smart Contract}. We use the Patch Crypto Accounting Methodology. Patch uses the energy mix and geographic location of Ethereum mining pools and the time at which the transactions took place, to calculate the GHG of a smart contract.

With the carbon footprint of the smart contract, we get that the net carbon avoidance of Agatobwe, denoted CO₂e^{Net Avoided}, is given by:

CO₂e ^{Net Avoided} = CO₂e ^Avoided - CO₂e ^{Smart Contract}

The Historical Energy Chart will give users complete insight into Agatobwe’s historic electricity production (green bars) and cumulative net avoided emissions CO₂e^{Net Avoided} (white line).

The investment opportunity represents a Digitized Green Bond (the “Issue”) with nominal value $ 3,000,000 that replaces the Sr. debt and optimizes the capital structure of Agatobwe Hydro Power Ltd. MW will use the proceeds from the Issue to finance the construction of other hydropower facilities in the area. Creditors are therefore indirectly funding renewable energy development in East Africa through MW.

The Issue has been divided into 30,000 fractions with nominal value of $ 100 each and registered as ledger-based securities (the “Tokens”) on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-20 tokens. The Tokens are named “AgaTobwe Token bonds” (ATT) and issued in accordance with the Swiss Code of Obligations on the basis ledger-based securities, as introduced by the Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT bill).

Creditors of ATT are bound to the Terms of Issue and Registration Agreement. The bond pays an expected implied yield of 4% with lump-sum payment of $ 5,466,356 at maturity in 15 years. The Issuer aims to continuously repurchase bonds in the secondary market, using USDC, a dollar backed stablecoin.

The smart contracts governing the Issue has been audited by AxLabs GmbH in collaboration with Axelra AG (Smart Contract Audit).

Creditors benefit from three layers of transparency:

• Environmental transparency – the investments is tied directly to Agatobwe that track avoidance in carbon emissions real-time.
• Investment transparency – Creditors know exactly, down to the cent, to whom Creditor funds have been devoted and what that money is used for.
• Partner Transparency – there are no intermediaries taking a cut of Creditor investment; Creditor funds go directly to Agatobwe and the returns go directly to the Creditors.

The Microsite allows Creditors to perform the following actions:

• Buy ATT – during the ATT subscription period, Creditors buy ATT with USDC (“Buy ATT”), a dollar backed stablecoin. The investment is transferred directly to the Issuer’s (Agatobwe) Wallet. The proceeds from the Issue are then transferred from the Agatobwe Wallet to MW, that uses the funds to develop other renewable energy projects in the region.
• Swap ATT – Creditor trade ATT on a permissionless secondary market. The price will be determined by supply and demand, and correlates significantly with the available secondary liquidity (the “Liquidity Pool”). Agatobwe will dedicate 10% of the proceeds to a USDC – ATT Liquidity Pool. In addition, Agatobwe is determined to reserve 4% of the nominal value of ATT each year to repurchase ATT from the secondary market. This will boost liquidity and enable Creditors to swiftly trade (or “Swap”) their ATT tokens against USDC.
• Sell ATT – Once the ATT reaches maturity, Creditors can reclaim ATT for USDC at Face Value. Agatobwe facilitates Creditor sale of ATT in three steps. Step 1: Agatobwe removes liquidity from the USDC – ATT Liquidity Pool. Step 2: Agatobwe ensures that their Wallet can digest the outstanding volume of ATT at Face Value. Step 3: Agatobwe give Creditors permission to reclaim ATT at Face Value by accessing Agatobwe’s USDC account on their Wallet.

To interact with the Microsite, Creditors need a compatible Ethereum wallet installed on their desktop or an iOS- or Android device. Agatobwe requires Creditors to pass a Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) check. Then Creditors can proceed to invest in green bonds on Microsite.