News and views

Switching kids onto solar

As you know, here at SolarAid we’re passionate about solar. And solar education is a big part of what we do, not just in Africa but in the UK too. For several years we have been running Sunny Schools, an innovative climate, energy-saving and solar education programme for teachers, and thanks to our partnership with Lightsource Renewable […]

Bad Light – A week with Brave Mhonie

View all three films here. Today marks a the beginning of three filmed interviews with SunnyMoney Malawi Field Coordinator, Brave Mhonie. Brave is on Twitter too so simply drop him a tweet and ask a question at any time about his work. It’s a great opportunity to engage with someone who has experienced first-hand both the success […]

Meet Pippa, our interim Managing Director

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Pippa Palmer as interim Managing Director, while we move through the next phase of strategic planning. The appointment comes at a very exciting time, as we prepare to galvanize efforts to eradicate the use of kerosene for lighting in Africa by the end of the decade. The […]

What does it take to be a genuine solar guy?

Bomet is a Kenyan county that is divided into four major districts; Bomet district, Chepalungu district, Sotik district and Konoin district. A sizeable amount of the population in the county does not have access to grid electricity which means most of them use kerosene lanterns. With this in mind we formulated a solar light campaign […]

Plug into the sun – charging your phone with solar

So, other than solar lighting, what else do our SunnyMoney lights power? Digital Content Manager, Ralph Greenland takes a look at mobile phone charging via the sun in his new blog. Watch Ralph’s video, above, or for even more, take a look at his blog below: “The concept of solar phone charging isn’t new; even since I joined SolarAid in […]

All Ears for super Susie Wheeldon

Susie reads an extract from her book at the All Ears event. Our very own superhero, Susie Wheeldon, spoke of her Solar Cycle Diary adventures (and misadventures) in front of a captivated audience of 130 on Tuesday night.  The event brought together a trilogy of inspiring speakers, including writer and coach, Gaylene Gould and entrepreneur and humanitarian Sean Carasso of Falling Whistles – […]

SunnyMoney Tanzania sell their 50,000th solar light

Wow, we learnt today that the SunnyMoney Tanzania team have, this week, sold their 50,000th solar light for 2012! The team celebrated with some rather large portions of delicious looking cake! Operations Director, Malcolm Wigmore, told me that the student who purchased the 50,000th solar light (who lives in Kilimanjaro Region) will be presented with a special […]

Young boy sits on the side of a mud hut while charging his solar lights.

Big, Hairy and Audacious. Not our CEO…our BHAG!

If you haven’t received our latest newsletter then hop along to sunshineisfree for a good old fashioned read!  Our CEO, Steve Andrews, explains the consequences of choosing radical change, our management structure and also, what effect our big hairy and audacious goal (BHAG) will have on energy poverty by the end of the decade! “Last summer, SolarAid’s […]

Tackling poverty… Meet Soccket

An ingenious invention and a brilliant idea. But will it work? Our CEO, Steve Andrews, takes a look at Soccet, the latest device to ‘tackle’ energy poverty in Africa: “The technology is smart. The idea is seductive. Kids kick a football around for a couple of hours and before you can say “Penalty Shoot-out”, the […]

Keep it clean – catalysing the solar market in Malawi

Gill Davies is researching the growth of developing renewable markets in Malawi. Lucky for us, Gill is working with our team in Mzuzu and keeping a blog of her findings. Read on… “I’m a second year PhD student at the Centre of African Studies, based in the University of Edinburgh. After a first year of research […]