News and views

Jeremy Leggett in Kenya Part II

SolarAid chairman Jeremy Leggett spends a second day with the SunnyMoney team in Kenya. Read on to hear his reflections on a day spent delivering solar lights to head masters and mistresses, and the sales pitch that won over the Coca-Cola shop keeper too.  Cheptongwe, Kenya, 4 February 2014. We drive two hours northeast of Eldoret, […]

Jeremy Leggett in Kenya

Solar evangelist, Guardian writer and SolarAid chairman, Jeremy Leggett, is currently in Africa visiting the SunnyMoney teams. In 2006 Jeremy founded SolarAid in order to help establish clean energy alternatives in Africa. Over the next few days, Jeremy will be taking a closer look at our distribution and sales techniques that form the basis of […]

Solarcentury helps light up Africa

Solarcentury, SolarAid’s founding company, yesterday helped light up thousands of lives in Africa with a £98,000 donation to help fund our solar projects. The gift, worth around 20,000 solar lights, is part of Solarcentury’s ongoing pledge to give 5% of its annual profits to SolarAid. Our model is to sell solar lights to African families […]

SunnyMoney in Senegal

You may recall from a previous SolarAid article that we began work on our first ever programme in Senegal last year, funded by the World Bank. Well, since the completion of our Light Libraries project back in July 2013 we have been continuing to work alongside Senegalese government partners to set-up our innovative SunnyMoney Schools programme. The programme is […]

Lighting strategy for West African states

Officials from 18 Ministries of Energy met in Benin in October to continue development of an Efficient Lighting Strategy for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Our very own Charlie Miller and Andreas Adam from Osram represented GOGLA at the event. Originally focused on the transition to efficient lighting on-grid, Charlie and Andreas worked […]

Light IQ help light up Africa

We are proud to announce Light IQ’s recent success with their “Lighting up Africa” campaign. They reached their 2013 fundraising target, which would be enough to provide funds to install solar kits in Chigawi School in the Mzuzu district, Northern Malawi. Light IQ, a leading lighting design consultancy, was the first company from the lighting […]

The European Solar Prize 2013

Well we’ve only gone and done it again… this evening our chairman, Jeremy Leggett, will be picking up our fourth award of the year! This one comes from EUROSOLAR and is a really big deal in the solar industry. The European Solar Prize awards organisations taking innovative and pioneering action in promoting widespread use of […]

Aid Agencies and Off-Grid Lighting

SolarAid Partnerships Manager, Charlie Miller (pictured), has published a piece on the role aid agencies should play in meeting the energy needs of off-grid communities.  He believes that there are two main objectives agencies should focus on in order to foster the necessary conditions for an effective and sustainable solar market to develop.   These […]

Business Fights Poverty

Last week we celebrated Impact Week – all the great things solar light customers have told us about how solar lights have changed their life. This week if you want to learn more about how it is we collect that research, and use it, then you’re in for a treat… Our Social Impact & Research Manager Kat […]