Community Based Solar Energy Initiative

For the following year Umoja-Network for Africa plans in cooperation with an Organization from Berlin, Small Solutions that has specialized in solar-Campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa and functions as energy consultant agency, a Community Based Solar Energy Initiative that will take place in our community center in Nungwi that is still under construction. The Community Based Solar Energy Initiative is an income-generating-project that is about production and marketing of primly solar cooker and lamps. A huge market is expected on the surrounding island as Tumbatu that has still no access to the state-run electricity supply.

In Germany there is a producer of solar lamps, that has developed a workshop-concept for developing countries. The address of the solar company is www.solux.org – there you can find information about solar lamps and workshops – although that should only serve as an approximate course and we can and want to combine these products with other relevant activities and products. Solux offers products that can be produced in a workshop with local people and therefore it covers the topics “capacity building” and “business development”. The people that will work in the workshop will represent a basis for a sustainable development in the energy sector. The product is a bit more expensive but it is offered as a complete “development-country-workshop-startup-solution” and in addition to that the German government makes a retired technical assistant available as an instructor for two weeks available. Additionally we could engage in village relevant environmental and climatic issues and to expand the training availabilities, educational work and production by cultivating further solar solutions and other energy efficient concepts.

The project proposal is applied to the Tanzanian Rural Energy Agency
(www.rea.go.tz) that distributes grants of the World Bank for small-scale sustainable renewable energy projects. The application will be put in by Labayka Development Fund, a local Ngo in Nungwi. Umoja-Network for Africa and Small Solutions serve as cooperation partner and energy consultant agency.

If you want to know more about the backgrounds and aims of Small Solutions, you can read the following concept summary. Small Solutions has already successfully introduced two projects like that in Uganda in July 2009 and we work towards the implementation of the project in Nungwi the following year.

Concept: smallsolutions