Here's an update from our friends at Solar Aid, with whom we worked on our Off/On project.

Solar Aid managed to exceed their target for the year by getting over 400,000 lights into hands and homes by the end of March. We heard yesterday that as a result of their work to replace kerosene lanterns in East Africa with clean, affordable solar lights, they’ve been made a finalist for the 2013 International Ashden Award – which is fantastic news. The Ashden Awards recognise sustainable energy projects in the UK and developing countries that protect the environment and improve quality of life.

One of the biggest challenges in getting sustainable energy to the poor is getting to the ‘last mile’ – those remote rural areas where commercial distribution and retail networks simply don’t exist. SolarAid’s ingenious distribution methods are getting power to the people who need it the most.

Head Teacher Beatrice delivers some Solar Aid lamps.

With the audacious goal of eliminating the kerosene lamp from Africa by 2020, SolarAid’s sales teams work with schools in rural areas of east Africa to promote good quality, affordable lights to families. The benefits are immeasurable: children are able to study in the evening, polluting and dangerous kerosene is avoided, while families save money.

Solar Aid's big focus for the next couple of months is finding the money to enable them to grow at the same rate that the demand for lights is escalating.

For more information on Solar Aid, see here.

This short video shows their solar lamps in action.