Access to energy – or the lack of it – significantly impacts an individual’s ability to live above the poverty line. Basic needs such as food, housing, shelter, education, and finance are all adversely impacted by energy poverty and its limitations on a community. Energy poverty makes people rely on expensive, hazardous, and polluting sources … Read More
Which quality solar products are on the market for household use? How can humanitarian actors assess which lighting solutions for households and communities are needed? Presentations by Lighting Global and Oxfam will shed a light on these questions. In two case studies, Practical Action and Mercy Corps will share their experience from a community needs … Read More
Ongoing innovation in technology and distribution models continues to be a hallmark of the off-grid solar sector. Having already led to hundreds of millions of people benefitting from off-grid solar products ranging from lanterns to solar home systems (SHS), products are now developing along the sector’s newest frontier – productive uses leveraging solar energy (PULSE). These … Read More
International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) and The INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT (“World Bank”) (jointly the ”World Bank Group”) have been made aware that various individuals or organizations are posting false job advertisements in the media and offering fraudulent letters of appointment on behalf of IFC, the World Bank, and/or the World Bank Group Lighting Africa program, including through a so-called organization “Solar … Read More
The Board of the World Bank Group approved on April 17, 2019 the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP), which includes $150 million in the form of credit and grant from the International Development Association (IDA)* and $74.7 million contingent recovery grant from the Clean Technology Fund to help the West African Development Bank and ECOWAS’ Center … Read More
Off-Grid energy’s tremendous impacts – and potential for more – have been recognized in the newly launched (December 2018) Kenya National Electrification Strategy (KNES). KNES lays out a strategy for achieving universal electricity access for all Kenyans by 2022, which includes grid extension as well as off-grid solutions. The strategy, which was prepared with support … Read More
In 2009, IFC/World Bank launched the Lighting Africa program in Kenya, with an objective of mobilizing the private sector to create markets for clean and affordable off-grid lighting products for rural communities not connected to the grid. At the time, Kenya had a national grid access rate of twenty-three percent, and only five percent connections … Read More
If you are one of the 3.2 billion World Cup viewers from around the globe, you likely know the full range of emotions that accompany the act of staring at a screen watching grown men chasing a small ball around the field, half a world away. When your favored team is doing well the elation … Read More
In September 2017, with support from the World Bank Group, the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) officially adopted the Lighting Global Quality Standards for Pico solar products as mandatory standards for all imported solar Pico products in Tanzania. These standards include benchmarks for product quality, warranties, and performance reporting requirements. In order to pave way … Read More
It’s happened to all of us: you walk into a store and see something you like – only to feel the disappointing realization that you can’t afford it. If what you were coveting was something frivolous, it’s not a problem. But what if the item you were hoping to purchase has the power to … Read More
