{"title": "The Solar Foundation ☀️ Decentralized solar energy for underserved communities ☀️", "logoImg": "bafkreifn5qtcv2qj4epn3aqy3errusoabm36zgsnds5yw3dmseud5gqrzm", "website": "https://solarfoundation.xyz", "bannerImg": "bafkreih2odcpcozroikmd5yr6u3hzxlgmmqltzhac7g7cwd6qkjkjiseee", "createdAt": 1692099904817, "credentials": {}, "description": "## TL;DR\nEnergy access is still a major problem in Africa. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an estimated 600 million people lack access to electricity, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, a place that is perfect for low-cost, high-impact, off-grid solar ☀️\n\n\nThe Solar Foundation’s mission is to leverage new technologies like the blockchain to fund and accelerate off-grid solar solutions for underserved communities in emerging economies. We believe decentralized solar energy is a public good. Through working on solar projects with our local partners in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, we’ve witnessed how small solar solutions in rural, low-income communities unlock profound, real-life, tangible benefits. \nFor GG20, The Solar Foundation is evolving to focus on more full-stack solutions such as solar-powered community centers. We’ve learned through first-hand experience that combining more than one impact—for example, when we combine solar power with public charging hubs, computer labs, solar-water pumps  and/or skill training centers—we can impact more people and the sum of the impact is so much greater than the parts. \n## Update\n\n[![Ayowecca-Jon-Solar-Lamp-Shakinghands](https://i.postimg.cc/YCXfs2RV/Ayowecca-Jon-Solar-Lamp-Shakinghands.jpg)](https://postimg.cc/DSXXWTtd)\nFor GG19, our grant proposal focused on raising funds for an innovative Solar + UBI pilot project for women in collaboration with [GoodDollar](https://www.gooddollar.org/), and with [Ayowecca](https://ayoweccauganda.org/) as our local partner. The project suffered a major challenge when GoodDollar’s treasury was drained in January 2024. Nevertheless, we moved forward in the following ways:\n1. One of our co-founders, Jon Ruth, visited Ayowecca Uganda to meet with the project participants and learn about their needs and how solar can benefit their lives, their families & their community.\n2. Jon distributed SunKing Pro 200 Solar Lanterns to 110 women in the Ayowecca Uganda community to replace the polluting and harmful kerosene lanterns that served as their only source of light. The lanterns provide light for up to three days with a durable, long-lasting battery and are 20X brighter than a kerosene lamp. They can also be used for charging phones in addition to providing light for working, studying, cooking and conducting business at night. For example, women can use the portable light at the market to sell their goods after the sun has set as shown in the picture below.\n\n[![Ayoweccalanternstrading](https://i.postimg.cc/DzPFTDWt/Ayoweccalanternstrading.jpg)](https://postimg.cc/Lq5Gkx3T)\nIn addition to the above project, we also completed a solar microgrid project with OMAWA in Tanzania to power the Iring’ong’weni Primary School in Mataleto. With this project, we tested our **new Solar Foundation Impact Survey** and learned more about the benefits provided not only to the students, teachers and staff, but to the entire community—it’s estimated that 1,000 people are served by the solar power installed. \nA quote from Joseph Maro, executive director of OMAWA, nicely sums up this project: “We know that lack of energy inhibited the effective learning and education of the children and resulted in a sub-optimal learning environment. We would like to thank The Solar Foundation for helping us fulfill our mission of enabling the education of vulnerable children and creating livelihoods thereby sustainably reducing poverty in the rural districts in Tanzania.”\nSpecific benefits of the OMAWA microgrid that were highlighted in the impact survey include:\n- Lights for classrooms, staff houses and outside security.\n- Power for televisions and radios.\n- Community charging hub for charging phones and radios for the community.\n- Substantial emissions reduction benefits from the elimination of the use of kerosene, candles and diesel generators.\n- Increased health as it is well known that kerosene lights/burners have adverse effects such as harming children’s lungs and eyes as they try to study.\n- The local community no longer has to walk 60-80 km to charge their phones and radios and now they can get news about what is happening in Tanzania and abroad.\n- Solar power enabled new sources of income, as two shops and a local church asked to share the solar energy in exchange for a small amount of money. The school is also renovating a room to host a solar-powered barber shop.\n[![Omawa-Solar-Banner-Close.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/xCk2zdpS/Omawa-Solar-Banner-Close.jpg)](https://postimg.cc/S2p30mpZ)\nSince GG19, we have also continued to partner with Helpers Social Development Foundation to pilot the idea of a solar-powered community center. The center is now equipped with solar and we also funded a solar water pump, water storage tanks and solar security lights so that the water can be utilized by the community of approximately 400 people. This center houses a primary school and will soon offer digital skills training to enable youth and women to earn income by participating in the digital economy.\n\n[![Helpers-Solar-Comm-Cntr](https://i.postimg.cc/fbpP1fC6/Helpers-Solar-Comm-Cntr.jpg)](https://postimg.cc/Ny8bHTW4) \nAre you looking for a way to take joyful, meaningful and sustainable climate action that impacts real lives? Please support our #GG20 grant and join our efforts to accelerate solar in rural, low-income communities for improved health, safety, knowledge and income-generating activities, in addition to decreased GHG emissions from replacing the diesel generators and kerosene lamps currently used in these underserved areas.\n## Road Map\nThe Solar Foundation is evolving to focus on more full-stack solutions such as solar-powered community centers. Here is our roadmap for 2024:\n- Partner with Helpers Social Development Foundation to pilot the Community Center Model and sustainable funding ideas. Develop an open-source framework that can help other communities.\n- Utilize the Community Center framework to help additional communities fund and sustain their solar-powered community centers.\n- Pilot new sustainable funding models such as public charging hubs and solar-powered businesses. \n- Launch a new initiative, Sol Mama, to help women, families and communities access greater benefits/utility from solar power through Productive Use of Energy appliances (PUEs) like solar-powered fans, refrigerators, electric pressure cookers, etc.\n- Explore and test solutions for how Community Centers might provide affordable and reliable access to the internet.\n- Partner with Switch, a fellow Gitcoin Grantee based in Nigeria, who is developing hardware and software solutions for monitoring solar energy in a transparent and decentralized way. We will be piloting this technology with two of our sites in Nigeria in Q2 2024. We plan to incorporate this on-chain stream of data into our impact certificate pilot as a proof of the solar project impact.\n## Team Members\nJon Ruth has over 15 years of experience developing, managing, and constructing over 400MW of C&I and utility-scale solar projects. He has also been on the nonprofit United Solar Initiative board for six years. Since 2016, Jon has been involved in cryptocurrency, working with Gitcoin, CCN, Spark and many other projects. For 20+ years, Jon has studied climate change and has a passion for building sustainable solutions to one of the most significant challenges humanity faces.\nColeen Chase is a member of the Climate Coordination Network (formerly the Gitcoin Climate Advisory Team) and former contributor to Gitcoin where she helped manage operations and outreach for the Gitcoin Grants Program. Her background includes marketing and operations at Microsoft and Apple. She is passionate about finding and creating models to utilize blockchain technology and web3 for meaningful, sustainable, real-life climate action.\n\n", "logoImgData": {}, "bannerImgData": {}, "projectTwitter": "Solar_FND"}