News and views

1 million solar lights shining in Africa

It’s official! That’s right everyone, we’ve sold our millionth solar light in rural Africa. This is a great opportunity for us all to take stock, and reflect on some fantastic achievements over the last 12 months. Because this isn’t about us, it’s about you. It’s about all  the wonderful people who’ve helped us get here. […]

A new era for SolarAid

As we eagerly await the next batch of sales figures about our millionth solar light sale, we have an announcement of a slightly different nature to make.  SolarAid and SunnyMoney CEO, Steve Andrews, has decided to move on to pastures new. Steve joined SolarAid back in October 2010 when we were selling around 2,000 lights per month and still puzzling […]

SolarAid move in to Uganda

We’re hugely excited to announce that we’ll be taking our solar projects to Uganda! As we approach the million lights mark, plans for the next 12 months are already well under way. We’ve set ourselves the ambitious goal of selling a further million lights and expanding in to two additional countries. Work in Senegal, our […]

Jeremy Leggett in Zambia

On day three of his visit, Jeremy Leggett meets his SunnyMoney colleagues in Zambia to learn more about solar market penetration in this large East African country. Jeremy reflects on the hard work and enthusiasm of the Zambian team. The team that he believes will one day help make solar the most popular and readily […]

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 […]