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

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

On March 17, 2010 the German National Committee of the UN Decade of Education declared SOLUX’ Ghanaian project  “One Child One Solar Light” an official UN Decade Project.

In 2002 the United Nations (UN) proclaimed the years 2005 to 2014 the World Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. International initiatives in this area intend to help embed the principles of sustainable development in education worldwide. UNESCO has been appointed the international lead agency for the Decade. The German Commission for UNESCO (DUK) is implementing the initiative in Germany with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the patronage of the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler. The DUK declares projects as official UN Decade projects, which prove exemplary sustainable thinking and action to help people achieve a better future.
In the One Child One Solar light program the provisioning of the SOLUX solar lights, and overcoming commercial and logistical challenges are only part of the scope. A comprehensive education campaign, both in Europe and among the consumers in developing countries is making people understand the importance and advantages of ecological sustainability. We are very proud of being honoured by the UNESCO.

Hello everybody, hope you all had some rest over the holidays and a good start into a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year 2010!

With this blog we will keep you updated on what’s going on with SOLUX and around us, and we are looking forward to your input, comments and discussions! If you just found us, you may appreciate some pieces of information around what we are doing, why this matters, and who we are. So here we go..

More than 1,5 Billion people worldwide have no access to stable power supply. After dark its dark! No light to read, study or work, apart from candles and light provided by sources like kerosene, batteries and diesel generators, which obviously don’t fit into the eco-friendly category.

Solar energy is a clean alternative. However, the products available in the market were either big and complex (it’s a massive investment and adventure to install and maintain a solar system in a village in rural Africa) or not robust enough, or just too complicated to use and maintain.

The founders of SOLUX looked at the problem and decided to take it into their own hands. They founded   a charity organization back in 2003 and started developing their own solar lights, specially designed for the use in villages by village people. In this short time SOLUX has developed and improved its products through several generations. Today we offer two lanterns based on LED technology. One SOLUX lantern provides bright light for 4-5 hours each day, and it replaces around 35 liters of kerosene per year!

The smaller one, our LED50, is a handy, robust and easy to use lamp, no bigger than a mobile phone, and a small solar panel. The lamp can be used as a torch or for room light. In addition, even mobile phones can be charged!

LED100 is a lamp to put on a table or hanging from a ceiling, providing bright light for entire rooms. Other than the LED50, which is available as a ready-to-use product (solar panel, lamp, cable), the LED1oo comes in assembly kits, which are mounted in workshops in the country of destination. Today, more than 25000 lamps have been assembled in more than 50 workshops worldwide.

SOLUX is run primarily by enthusiastic volunteers. Our home base is Munich/Taufkirchen. In close cooperation with Non Government Organisations (NGOs), we have rolled out multiple projects in South America and Africa, shipping thousands of lamps in the process. In 2008 we won the Worldbank award ‘Development Marketplace Lighting Africa’ and started a project in Ghana: One Child One Solar Light, where we target schools in rural areas.

Hello,

A couple of weeks ago we started a Solux Blog in German www.blog.solux.org

We now want to share news with our international friends and partners too, so stay tuned and check our new blog frequently!

Another way to stay in contact with us is our Facebook Page

Solux is a charity organisation based in Munich/Taufkirchen. We develop and distribute solar lanterns to developing countries. Our aim is to replace kerosene lamps with a better, ecofriendly solution. –bk