News and views

300,000 Ugandans accessing clean light for the first time

   In November 2014 SunnyMoney opened its newest office in Uganda with help from the UK government. Only 15 million people have access to electricity in Uganda, leaving 31 million without power. Across the nation, 63% of families use toxic kerosene for lighting which, in this landlocked country, comes at a particularly high cost: 25% […]

Solar lights and the Global Goals

Today, world leaders meet in New York to get behind the Global Goals: fighting poverty, injustice and climate change. Our work building sustainable markets for solar lights directly underpins Goal 7 – Clean Energy – but solar lights hit many others too. 10 goals in one in fact. Here’s a brief step by step summary. […]

Solar is the solution to Zambia’s energy shortage

Severe drought in Zambia has left the country grappling with electricity shortages as hydropower accounts for over 90% of the nation’s grid supply. In the midst of energy-saving blackouts, SunnyMoney’s sales have soared – as savvy Zambians choose to invest in reliable solar power. More than 90% of Zambia’s electricity is hydro-powered by three major […]

Tanzania and the price of success

  The off-grid energy market certainly looks a lot different today than it did just a few short years ago. When SunnyMoney first started selling lights in early 2009 there were around 40,000 on the market. The last Lighting Global figures taken from Dec 2014 suggest that figure stood at around 7.2 million, and that’s […]

Impact Week & the Sustainable Development Goals

It’s impact week! It’s that time of the year when we share with you all the amazing things you’ve helped achieve over the last 12 months. We’ve put together our latest impact report to keep you abreast of the latest developments and to give you something to share with your friends, so they can see […]

Until the sun comes up

  We’ve always been the coolest solar charity with an orange and black logo based in South East London, but now, SolarAid just got even cooler! You didn’t think it was possible did you? Be honest, you didn’t did you. Ok, so even if you did, you’ll be surprised by how cool this is. Canadian […]

Solar lights and the fight against Ebola

You may have read about some of the incredible things SolarAid ambassador Keith Neal has got up to in our previous blogs. Well, today we have another amazing story regarding one of his solar inspired projects in Sierra Leone. Bo District, the second largest District in Sierra Leone, was hit by Ebola in June 2014. Up […]

SolarAid restructures to reach new frontiers

A message from the SolarAid & SunnyMoney board. In just three years, SolarAid’s retail arm SunnyMoney has catalysed the first two African national mass-markets in solar lighting, soaring to best-of-continent sales status from growth mostly in Kenya and Tanzania. But just as the charity and its social venture gear up to raise further funding for expansion across […]

New SunnyMoney CEO looks forward to challenges ahead

We’re hugely excited to announce the appointment of Caesar Mwangi as the new CEO of our social enterprise, SunnyMoney. Caesar takes over at a highly critical time for SolarAid and SunnyMoney as the solar market in Africa continues to grow and evolve. SunnyMoney was set up in 2008 to sell solar lights to those living ‘beyond the […]