This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
SOLAR INDUSTRY AWARDS I WINNERS


SOLAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE: INDIVIDUAL Steve Andrews, CEO of SolarAid


OVER 600 MILLION PEOPLE in Africa (two thirds of the population) live without access to grid electricity. When the sun sets, they either live in the dark, making any kind of productive activity -like doing homework – impossible; or they probably use a kerosene lamp.


Kerosene lamps are a terrible technology that are made from recycled tin cans, filled with kerosene (paraffin) which is burnt using a small wick. There is so much wrong with these lamps it’s hard to know where to start. They are dangerous – often causing fires and burns that claim people’s lives. They are polluting – filling people’s lungs with black smoke (estimated by the World Health Organisation to be the equivalent of smoking 2 packets of cigarettes per day).


They provide poor light, making it hard for children to study at night. And maybe worst of all, they are brutally expensive to run. A typical rural African family spend 20% of their budget on kerosene for lighting. In the West, we spend less than 1% of the household budget on lighting.


SolarAid is a British charity that seeks to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa


becoming the largest last mile seller of these products on the continent of Africa; growing to 75,000 lights per month in July 2014. SunnyMoney is now recognised in both the international development and renewable industry community and is inspiring further investment in solar power for Africa. This has been possible because of the strategic direction and focus Steve brought to the organisation.


Steve Andrews, formerly of SolarAid


by the end of this decade. The charity runs a social enterprise, SunnyMoney, which sells solar lights in six African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda and Senegal.


Solar lights are clean, safe and bright. A customer buying one stops using kerosene lighting and saves an average of $85 per year; money they spend on more food, more schooling for their children and inputs for their small farms.


Steve Andrews led SunnyMoney from being a small start-up company selling a few hundred solar lights per month to


Steve led the SolarAid and SunnyMoney teams in capturing the ambition of what is known as a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): the eradication of the kerosene lamp from Africa by 2020.


Steve Andrews has won the Solar Award for Excellence for an individual for his efforts in taking a great idea and making it one of the solar success stories worth celebrating.


In August 2014, Steve left SolarAid and has subsequently decided to start a new privately funded company selling solar lights in Africa. Called NewLight Africa, Steve’s new company will actually sell a range of clean energy technologies that will change the lives of many of the world’s poorest people.


50 www.solar-international.net I Issue V 2014


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80