Andy, Henry and Ollie (team Buggin’ Off) completed the Mongol Rally race in August 2019. They drove 10,315 miles in 41 days, across an array of difficult landscapes and – at times – horrendous roads, all in a tiny Nissan Micra! The journey was filled with adventures. The most difficult leg of the race was […]
While our team in London is getting ready for the Global Climate Strike (#GlobalClimateStrike) on Friday, we are also supporting teams working hard to increase access to solar-powered light and electricity across rural Africa. Access to electricity is critical for modern societies to develop and build stronger, more resilient economies which are able to withstand […]
A candle might mean something different to me than it does to you. I’ve heard stories from the UK of using candles at Christmas, on a romantic occasion, or even with a bath. In Malawi, we have no choice but to use candles made from crude oil to try and light our homes. Thanks […]
It was when I met 9-year-old Alinafe in Mandevu village, Malawi, that I truly understood the cost of a candle. Driven by determination to do well in her upcoming school exam, the little girl had gone to the village trading centre to purchase a candle after the family’s battery-torch had run out. This single […]
With such high temperatures in the UK this week, it seems apt Solarcentury would make its biggest ever donation of £528,527 to SolarAid – as covered by the Guardian. Here are three reasons why we are celebrating today: Rising from the ashes We have shared with you the difficult times SolarAid had when we catalysed the markets of Kenya […]
Often when delivering talks, in meetings or discussing our work to anyone and everyone who will listen, people ask ‘can the solar lights be recycled?’ There has never been a good enough answer. For years, the solar lights we sell have been made hard to ‘tamper’ with or reverse engineer by the manufacturers, making repairs […]
When you’ve done something once you’d think it would be easier the second time around. SolarAid has just reached its second million for solar lights distributed in Africa The first solar light was sold in Kenya in 2008, the first million reached in April 2014, six years later. We celebrated with our supporters that achievement […]
In November last year, SolarAid attended Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Discover 2018 in Madrid – an exhibition showcasing the latest technology for business and IT professionals. Here, a human-sized robot packed 1,500 of our SM100 solar lights to be sent off to three projects in Zambia. HPE was pleased with its success and so invited […]
In the burgeoning ‘solar revolution’ of sub-Saharan Africa, we are seeing an incredible number of people being reached with clean and affordable energy for the first time. When we started 13 years ago, it was just us. Now there are hundreds of companies looking to serve people with solar energy. However, growth is limited. […]
We are excited to share the news that our SunnyMoney team in Malawi has set up two new solar light libraries which are designed to help enable universal access to clean, renewable, light. While we have led the way in Malawi, selling over a quarter of a million solar lights across the country, we know that […]