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
Courtesy of Schatz Energy Resource Center. By Meg Harper The Schatz Center and the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), with support from the World Bank through Lighting Africa, are working collaboratively with government partners in Nigeria and Niger to develop a new approach for the procurement, installation, and long-term maintenance of … Read More
This Spring, Lighting Africa demonstrated the transformative power of off-grid lighting and energy products to hundreds of World Bank staff and visitors. To do so, we set up black-out tents in the atrium of the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., with support from the Lighting Global Program. The tents were outfitted to resemble … Read More
Less than a quarter of households in Kenya are connected to the national electric grid, but solar energy solutions are narrowing the energy gap. Thirty percent of unconnected households are now using decentralized solar energy solutions – placing it among the countries with the highest rates of off-grid solar usage. This statistic is particularly striking … Read More
Why 59.9 million is equal to 15.8 million Access to modern, reliable energy is crucial to sustainable development. This fact underpins not only the mission of our work – to provide energy access to an additional 250 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 – but has also been codified in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development … Read More
In light of the growing market demand, Lighting Global and the regional World Bank Group Lighting programs, Lighting Africa, Lighting Asia and Lighting Pacific, are now extending quality assurance testing and program support from pico-solar products to solar home system kits with power ranging up to 100 Watts. Since 2009, the programs have provided quality … Read More
The fosera Pico Solar Home System (PSHS) product family have met the Lighting Global Quality Standards. The PSHS line of modular systems, which includes the PSHS 2800, PSHS 7000 and two other systems, are designed to power lights, mobile phones, radios and fans. The products enable a user to connect up to four of its … Read More
Greenlight Planet, a manufacturer and distributor of solar energy products for homes without access to grid electricity has received US$10m financing from Fidelity Growth Partners, India to expand distribution of its Sun King™ family of solar lighting and phone charging products in sub-Saharan Africa. The company, which started operating in Africa in 2012, expects to … Read More
Orb Energy, manufacturer and distributor of solar energy systems, has received two million dollars ($2m) from the Dutch development finance institution, FMO, to replicate its India business model in Kenya. Orb works with national banks and micro-finance institutions in India to ensure that its customers receive credit to purchase its products. Orb, which entered the … Read More
Greenlight Planet has launched a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) platform, the Sun King™ Eco Easy Buy, to enable low-income customers purchase its solar lamps in instalments over a period of 10 weeks. Greenlight Planet is using a mobile payments platform developed by Angaza Design to enable customers who cannot purchase solar lights upfront, pay a modest deposit … Read More
