News and views

Nancy from SunnyMoney Zambia introduces the SM100

Our new SM100 solar light has been very well received in Africa. The two minute video below shows Nancy from SunnyMoney visiting Mulalika Primary School in Zambia and talking to the head teacher, Mr. Hachilangu, who has helped distribute hundreds of solar lights to families that live without electricity. This video demonstrates exactly why SolarAid […]

SolarAid’s SM100 solar light helps launch the Design Museum

Prince Philip, 95, opened the new Design Museum in west London yesterday with the support of students from Sion Manning Roman Catholic Girls’ School and SolarAid’s SM100 solar light. The event marked the launch of the new £83million Design Museum building in Kensington, which opens its doors to the public on the 24th November. The […]

Market Update 2016

  SolarAid turned 10 years old in 2016. This report looks at the impact SolarAid has made over the last ten years, focussing on Kenya and Tanzania, where small but thriving solar markets now exist where previously there were none.

The #PitchDarkPortrait challenge

Can you imagine living without electricity? No TV, no mobile phone, no fridge, or oven or light!? When the clocks went back last Sunday, and the UK got darker one hour earlier, our long time friends and supporters at 9BAR kicked off a very clever awareness raising campaign highlighting what it’s like to live without […]

Offsetting “space travel” with solar lights

The following is a short report from Bernard McCarty, a long time supporter of SolarAid who donates a proportion of the money generated by his home Solar PV system via direct debit each month. Here he explains how he offset his “space trip” by donating to SolarAid. This summer, the arrival of a ‘big birthday’ provided the perfect […]

#Powerof10

This year, SolarAid celebrates a decade of work towards a sustainable future, by distributing solar lights in rural communities in Africa. We’ve helped over 10 million people get access to clean, affordable solar light and helped catalyse two of the first solar lighting markets in Kenya and Tanzania. But we couldn’t have done it alone. […]

A SunnyMoney Journey: Drawing with Mr. Hachilangu

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, Nelson Mandela’s famous words, displayed on the back of the students’ books in Mulalika Primary School, Chongwe District, Zambia. A two hour drive out of Lusaka brought us to this rural school and the huge smile of Mr. Hachilangu – the […]

A SunnyMoney Journey: Uncle Solar and the Agents of Change

  In this first installment, SolarAid’s Jamie McCloskey, Programme Partnerships Manager, shares his experience of attending a Head Teacher Meeting in rural Uganda.   Off the plane and into the field, my SunnyMoney Uganda colleagues picked me up in the minibus and off we went on our 6 hour journey from Kampala to Kasese, Western Uganda. These […]

A SunnyMoney Journey: An Introduction

  Over the coming weeks, SolarAid’s Jamie McCloskey, Programme Partnerships Manager will share a series of stories on his recent trip to our SunnyMoney operations in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. Watch this space.    “It is now a questions of who does not have a lamp rather than who does.” Ellis Bwanali, a SunnyMoney Agent, […]

Solar Waste PhD project – A Year 2 update

The growth of the off-grid solar industry is good news for development, however, with a limited lifespan, the large number of solar lanterns and home systems being distributed in sub-Saharan Africa is also adding to the region’s existing problems with electronic waste (e-waste). To understand this issue further and to explore opportunities to respond to this […]