SOLUX Blog - english -

Unfortunately the number of people with no or limited access to electricity keeps rising. In developing countries this is not only true for the population in remote, off-grid rural areas. Also in larger cities power supply is so infrequent that alternatives need to be within reach. As per Lighting Africa in 2009,  589 Mio. Africans did not have access to public power supply. Until 2030 this number will rise to  698 Mio. Africans and 1.3 Billion people worldwide. 33% of the African on-grid households, which do have access to the public system, still have frequent problems with power outages.

The usual energy sources such as generators, kerosene lamps, candles and batteries are hazardous and a thread to health and environment. As per WHO, each year 1.5 Million people in developing countries die of indoor intoxication by using fire or kerosene indoors for cooking or lighting.

All this results in tremendous expenses for the users. In 2009, African BOP (bottom of pyramid, the poorest of the poor) households spent 10 Billion US$ for non-renewable lighting sources, 50% of it for kerosine light. Lighting Africa predicts this to rise up to 11-12 Billion US$ by 2015.

Solar lights are a healthy, environmental friendly alternative. They are safe, don’t cause dangerous emissions and don’t bare any follow-up cost. Since no money needs to be spent for kerosene or batteries after the purchase, it pays off after a pretty short time. One SOLUX solar light saves 35 Liters of Kerosene per year. Charging the phone through the solar panel alone brings savings of 40 - 120 Euros per user per year.    –bk

Our new Overview Flyer is available in English now. It shows at a glance who we are, all our products, the prices etc. Check it out in our download center. We’ll be happy to send you some hard copies. It’s not a standard format, so printing it yourself might be difficult. -bk

SOLUX was invited by the World Bank to participate in the International Lighting Africa Conference and Trade Fair May 18-20, 2010. As one of the winners of the last competition, SOLUX was represented by Franz Kies, who presented our Ghanaian project ‘One Child One Solar Light‘.

Once more SOLUX was officially named as one of the few providers of top solar lights with regards to quality and performance! As a result of our work, SOLUX was invited to cooperate at the highest level as ‘Tier Three Associate’ with the World Bank/IFC (International Finance Corporation).

The SOLUX booth was one of the most frequented places in the Bougainvillea Exhibition Hall. Enjoy some pictures here.

Lighting Africa, a joint World Bank and IFC program, seeks to accelerate the development of markets for modern off-grid lighting products in Sub-Saharan Africa where an estimated 10 to 30 percent of household incomes are spent on hazardous and low quality fuel-based lighting products.

More than 600 participants and 50 exhibitors attended the second Lighting Africa conference and trade fair, which was introducing a new generation of affordable and better quality off-grid lighting products targeting low-income consumers. Quality products will allow them to realize significant cost savings, gains in productivity to raise their living standards and be less exposed to health risks by moving from kerosene to modern off-grid lighting.

Franz Kies

The Ecumenical Kirchentag (May 12-16) in Munich was a big success for SOLUX and a lot of fun.

During their walk through Munich city center at the opening night, German President Horst Köhler, Minister President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer and Munich’s Mayor Christian Ude were attracted by a stand which was gleaming in bright light of two SOLUX LED 50!

The SOLUX booth at the Munich Traidfair Center was busy all the time. Our solar lights and also the new solar radio attracted a lot of customers - there was no age limit! Also our solar workshop, where we showed how the LED-100 is being assembled, attracted a lot of attention.

We had a lot of promising conversations with existing and potentially new customers and we are looking forward to interesting new projects worldwide.For the team of SOLUX volunteers it was a lot of fun to be in direct contact with the visitors and receive all this positive feedback.

Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy!

-bk

Here’s a very interesting market study, issued by Lighting Africa. It shows how cheap, low-quality solar torches are swamping the market in Kenya. For sure the situation will be very similar in other African countries. Customers purchase those lights, and discover the poor quality soon enough. They are unhappy and loose their trust into solar lights alltogether. Read more in this interesting report what this means and how to identify good quality products.

Lighting Africa is a World Bank Group (WBG) initiative which supports the private sector to develop, accelerate, and sustain the market for modern off-grid lighting technologies tailored to the needs of African consumers.

today we mailed our Newsletter for Spring 2010. Enjoy!

If you would like to subscribe, send a mail to mail@solux.org

In May, SOLUX will participate in several large public events in Nairobi/Kenya and Munich/Germany. Hope to see you there!

The Lighting Africa 2010 - Business Conference and Trade Fair will be held May 18-20, 2010, at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the second global Lighting Africa Conference; the first, held in Accra, Ghana, in May 2008 brought together over 400 participants. Lighting Africa 2010 expects to draw an even greater attendance, attracting individuals from across the African continent and around the world. In 2008 Solux e.V. won an award in a “Lighting Africa” competition of the World Bank to provide alternative lighting to Africa. Franz Kies of Solux e.V. was invited as a speaker to this years’ conference to talk about Solux’ experience with their solar light projects in Ghana and elsewhere. Solux will also show their solar lamps at a booth in the exhibition area of the conference.

Munich: Ecumenical Kirchentag May 12 - 16. In more than 3,000 events thousands of visitors will discuss questions of todays christian life, with a large focus on OneWorld topics. SOLUX will host a booth in the exhibition area B4 B26.

Munich: Streetlife Festival, May 29/30, Munich Leopoldstrasse. A 2-day party on one of Munich’s nicest boulevards. Music, food, events and information. SOLUX will have a stand there and is looking forward to meeting a lot of old and new friends. -bk

In Sikunda, Gambia, the 700 villagers live without power supply or running water. A few months ago the German charity organisation Yirabah Gambia e.V., based in Borlanden/Germany started a project to bring in some SOLUX solar lights. Leading member Siegfried Ester is pleased that so far funds of 1600 Euros could be raised: “This allowed us to send an initial 60 SOLUX solar lights to the village and sell them using a micro-credit system. The reactions were extremely positive, so we will continue the project”. 

The solar lights allow for a lot of activities after dark which have hardly been possible before, like housework, studying, or social get-togethers in the village. The ability to charge mobile phones with the solar panel is of great importance to the villagers too, since this is the only means of telecommunication in Gambia. Yirabah aims to provide SOLUX solar lights to all households in Sikunda, but there’s still a long way to go.

Siegfried Ester explains his organisations’ self-help approach with an african proverb: ‘if you really want to help somebody, give him a fishing-rod, not a fish’. Yirabah sees donations as the wrong way for sustainable progress and real partnership. That’s why they decided to make the solar lights available through micro credits. The customers have 10 months to pay back the purchase amount - without interest. Yirabah re-invests the money into the project until all households are provided with solar lights.

Franz Kies, Solux Member, sends this report from Ghana

In 2008 Solux e.V., the German non-profit organization participated in a competition of the World Bank to provide alternative lighting to Africa: “Lighting Africa”. Solux e.V. won the award and a budget with it to start and run a project “One Child One Solar Light” in Ghana. Now, after one year the World Bank was asking for a report to evaluate the project.

Working with Solux for some time but so far being an outsider to the Ghana project, I was asked to fly to Ghana to evaluate what had been achieved so far.

One of my major tasks was to visit schools in the countryside, specifically in off-grid areas, i.e. areas without access to the electricity grid, where SOLUX solar lights were introduced under the One Child One Solarlight project. Among many others I visited two schools sponsored by the “Gymnasium Neutraubling”, a secondary school in southern Germany. Their sponsorship enabled Solux and our Ghanaian subsidiary Solar4Ghana S4G to subsidise the costs of solar lamps at some selected schools.  So e.g. in Katapar 46 pupils/parents were able to purchase SOLUX solar lights at the reduced cost of € 10.00 instead of the usual € 30.00.

And at an Islamic school I was invited as a special guest to personally hand out each solar lantern to each individual child. At first being rather timid and extremely disciplined, the children started to almost overwhelm me with joy and fun when they experienced me as an accessible person.

And again and again I met extremely motivated young teachers deep in the countryside in areas without any power supply. At night they are using the same sources of light for reading or preparation of lectures as their students, i.e. kerosene lanterns or candles. The pictures show some of these likeable, enthusiastic teachers at Jansu primary school.

I was able to do some good evaluations and statistics to determine the use and value of the SOLUX solar lights in Ghana. A detailed report will be delivered to the World Bank.

To sum it up in a few words:

The objectives set at the beginning of this project were met, the money and the efforts have been well spent. Solux has brought a tremendous improvement to the quality of life for a lot of people in Ghana. So far about 25.000 people, to a great part children, profit from Solux Solar Lights in Ghana. Let’s keep going!!!  Find more pictures here

The SOLUX info-event in the EineWeltHaus Munich was very well received by the audience. People were very interested in the presentation of the SOLUX philosophy and products, as well as in exciting reports of projects in Papua Neuguinea and West Africa. We had a lot of good conversations with potential customers and volunteers. Many thanks to all participants and contributors!

Click here for some pictures