Sponsored by Wärtsilä corporation, in partnership with Autodesk Foundation and in cooperation with World Vision Finland (Weconomy program) and World Vision Kenya, this project enabled solar entrepreneurship in high-impact areas where people are in dire need of a clean and affordable energy solution in the Great Lake area.

In 2017, we were back in Kenya, following up with 9 additional Lytefire5 in the Kisumu region to pilot additional applications of our technology and empower more and more entrepreneurs. Koptige Bakery and Yier Ngima’s women’s cooperative got additional machines, while Misire group got an oven and Bao Beach community a fish dehydrator.

In the Kakuma region, entering for the first time in a refugee camp hosting more than 150 000 inhabitants appeared to be a complex process requiring the cooperation of many actors. After our presentation at UNHCR compound, we have started the discussions to work more closely with refugees and our machine went to a local community of bakers, Ana Group.

Impact: in 2017, 9 additional were machines installed in 2 Kenya and Tanzania, 54 entrepreneurs were trained in different communities of entrepreneurs, 134 tons of yearly CO2 saving and our demos events reached over 2000 people. Data and economics collection is ongoing during all 2018.

Watch below a 11 minutes recap of our actions in Kenya and Tanzania. Here a shorter presentation of the same achievements.

Here Wärtsilä’s video about their sponsorship.

Weconomy program web page can be found here.