Solarcentury Helps Replace Over 5,000 Kerosene Lamps with Solar Lights

17/10/2012

Solarcentury, the UK’s leading solar energy company, has today announced it’s to donate over $56,550.07 to SolarAid’s ‘Share a light’ campaign. Continuing its on-going commitment to SolarAid, the charity founded by Solarcentury to tackle poverty and climate change with solar power, this donation comes as five per cent of its annual profit for 2011/2012. The ‘Share a light’ campaign, which aims to eradicate kerosene from Africa by 2020, will use the $56,740.72 donation to subsidise the cost of more than 5,850 solar lamps across Africa.

Kerosene is a bigger killer in Africa than Malaria. By raising money to provide rural African households with subsidised solar lamps, the campaign reduces the poverty, health and educational problems that are created by the widespread reliance on kerosene among African communities.

Each solar light that is subsidised by the ‘Share a light’ campaign costs just $9.69 as opposed to a full cost of $19.39 which covers the cost of transporting the lights to the areas of need, and provides a more affordable, clean and healthy alternative to burning kerosene. They are sold through social enterprise ‘Sunny Money’, which trains locals in business skills.

Steve Andrews, CEO of SolarAid, said:

When a company like Solarcentury makes this type of donation to SolarAid, they help to abolish the crippling dependence many African households have on kerosene. As well helping directly reduce poverty levels, these donations also provide substantial health and educational benefits to impoverished families. We are incredibly grateful for Solarcentury’s generosity, as well as their vision and on-going commitment to a kerosene free future.

Solarcentury founded SolarAid in 2006 to bring its organisational mission of addressing the threat of climate change to the developing world. Since then, the charity has raised nearly $16,157,162.21 for its work with households and schools in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. It has sold over 170,000 solar lights since 2007, 80,000 of which have been sold in the past six months.

Frans van den Heuvel, CEO, Solarcentury said: “Solar PV has a crucial role to play in the developing world where countless communities are paralysed by fuel poverty. SolarAid’s ‘Share a Light’ campaign is making literally a life changing difference to these communities. As a company, we believe whole-heartedly in the SolarAid vision and hope that our donation helps to inspire other solar companies to get behind the cause.”

Donations to the ‘Share a light’ campaign are open to both individuals and organisations and start from $9.69 for a single solar study light. For more information on how you or your organisation can help, or to make a donation, visit the SolarAid website at http://solar-aid.org/give

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Posted by Shelley Burke on Oct 19 2012. Filed under Solar Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry