News and views

SolarAid down under

Jeremy Leggett, the founder of Solarcentury who went on to establish SolarAid and our social enterprise arm SunnyMoney, was interviewed by Australian radio network ABC for their Science Show. Jeremy, who is the incumbent chair of SolarAid’s founding partner solarcentury, discusses the benefits of solar energy with presenter Robyn Williams. Jeremy reels off an impressive list of health, […]

Fundraising at the Lighting Design Awards

We were very proud to be the charity partner of the 2013 Lighting Design Awards, held at the swanky London Hilton on Park Lane. The awards were designed to showcase the best lighting manufacturers, lighting retailers and lighting designers in the business. There in force, we had 12 permanent staff and volunteers whipping up support […]

SolarAid in the media; Solar sales eclipse all forecasts

The national media have picked up on the amazing sales figures our teams have achieved in rural Africa. The figures are so impressive that news of these great results has spread far beyond the renewable energy press. The Huffington Post has noted that we are well on target to sell 320,000 solar lights within the last […]

SolarAid on the BBC; “chasing the shadows away”

It’s been a monumental few weeks here at SolarAid; not only have we been showcasing our work at the world’s largest sustainable environment conference, ecobuild, but have also received an unprecedented level of press coverage as word of our work continues to spread. We were heavily featured in the BBC’s Electrifying Africa; Beyond the Grid series with our social […]

Mission complete… now for the data

Blogger: Kat Harrison, Social Impact and Research Manager Twitter: @sunrise_kat Tumblr: http://sunrisekat.tumblr.com (Above: Research Assistants, Tanzania)   I expect you’re probably wondering what’s the latest with all this clever research we’re doing at SolarAid? Yes, I thought so. Well, mission completed: the first phase of our impact measurement function has been set up in Africa. Research Assistants […]

Win a signed copy of Ian McEwan’s novel, Solar

At 7.55am on 30 December, SolarAiders will be waking up early to hear Booker Prize winner, Ian McEwan, tell BBC Radio 4 listeners why he supports our work. To celebrate we want to give you this book (yes the one in the lovely sunny photo above). Ian McEwan is a world-renowned writer who learnt about SolarAid following research […]

Behind the scenes with Ian McEwan

Apart from looking forward to Christmas, and also the New Year, there’s a third reason to get excited this December… SolarAid’s BBC Radio 4 Appeal, with best selling author, Ian McEwan! Our Director of Fundraising, Richard Turner, gives us his reaction after watching from ‘behind the scenes’ at the appeal. Every so often, as a fundraiser, you have […]

Big News from Team Tanzania!

This week Team Tanzania sold their 100,000th solar light this year – a new record! We would like to say a huge thank you to our Field Teams who’ve been campaigning tirelessly in Morogoro, Iringa & Njombe. It was good to see them all arrive back after their long time away, and our very own […]

Go Team Kenya!

Our Project Manager for Kenya, Victor Koyier, gives us an insightful update on how the team are getting on, what keeps them motivated, and the hurdles they face distributing solar lights across the country: There’s more than meets the eye when we talk about the school campaigns project. It’s harder than it looks to ensure that each […]

Who’s the biggest solar light seller in Africa?

Who’s the biggest solar light seller in Africa?… SunnyMoney! Our CEO, Steve Andrews, recently took a trip to Senegal for the Lighting Africa conference; the third international off-grid lighting and trade fair. To our delight, he discovered SunnyMoney has surpassed the competition by selling 203,000 solar lights in the last 3 years, making it the biggest seller of solar lights in Africa! “Two […]