TL;DR

The Solar Foundation’s mission is to fund and accelerate off-grid solar solutions for underserved communities in emerging markets with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. We believe decentralized clean energy is a public good, and that by partnering with community led NGOs and utilizing new technologies such as blockchain, we can accelerate progress toward SDG7: Universal access to affordable, reliable, clean and modern energy. Through our work in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria, we have seen how small, decentralized solutions provide ripples of exponential impact including improved health outcomes, increased economic opportunities and greater climate adaptation and resilience. The Solar Foundation’s focus is evolving towards off-grid, full-stack, solar solutions for local, high-impact organizations such as schools, healthcare centers, community centers and agroforestry and regenerative farming cooperatives. At The Solar Foundation, we envision innovative, sustainable funding models to enable rural, low-income communities to access clean energy and have an ownership stake in the solar deployed. Our aim is to democratize access to solar solutions and solar-powered appliances for improved well-being and prosperity—and a just transition to clean energy for ALL.

Update

To date, The Solar Foundation has funded 10 projects that continuously benefit over 7,600 people annually with clean, renewable solar power. Please see our website at: https://www.solarfoundation.xyz/ for project details, photos and testimonials. Since #GG20, we have focused on the following areas:

Rooftop Solar Solution for Health Clinic in Kenya

Funded our first solar solution for a health center in Kisii, Kenya. This 9.9 kW rooftop solar system provides 24 x 7 clean energy for the Iranda Healthcare Clinic which provides community healthcare, maternity services and refrigeration for vaccines and other medicines. Solar system installation at Mayuge Hill Secondary School, Aug. 2024

Rooftop Solar Solution & Solar Education Partnership with C2YA

In July 2024, we funded a rooftop solar system for Mayuge Hill Secondary School in Mayuge District, Uganda, one of the schools where our partner, fellow Climate Solutions grantee and local NGO, Comrades to Youths Africa (C2YA), is implementing their Eshule youth empowerment and sustainability program. We have also worked with C2YA to design their Solar Education module and Solar Baseline Survey to help teach the value of solar energy, how it works and why it is important in addressing climate change. In addition to the solar systems, The Solar Foundation provided two solar lanterns for the Eshule program to help demonstrate how solar works and how even small solar appliances can provide large impacts in terms of money saved, health improved and safety increased.

Onchain Monitoring & New Partnership With DePIN Organizations

Partnered with Switch Electric, a local Nigerian company, to test their solar metering device which has enabled us to begin monitoring our solar solutions and bringing the data on chain for improved maintenance, proof of impact and sustainability. Since the last round, we have tested the device on two of our projects in Nigeria and are currently working with the DePIN organization, Arkreen Network to pilot a mechanism to monetize the on-chain data so that we can fund more solar solutions.

Solar Savings Circles Pilot for Entrepreneurial Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

Developed a Solar Saving Circle (SSC) Pilot in partnership with Radiical Systems and Helpers Social Development Foundation. The SSC project integrates traditional women’s savings circles with the blockchain-based Stable Credit platform to provide rural African women with access to clean solar energy and productive appliances. We’ve received initial funding from the ReFi in Arbitrum grant program for deploying the mutual credit technology solution onto Arbitrum and to fund some of the infrastructure needed to create and test this emergent pilot. Additional funds are needed so that we can scale the pilot into new locations such as Uganda where we are planning to implement the second phase of the pilot with our partner, Ayowecca Uganda and integrate it with a community charging center in partnership with the Tech and Sun (TAS) project spearheaded by Decentralized Exchange LTD.
Women Leaders in the Ayowecca Community Receiving SunKing Home Solar Systems

Additional Funding Provided: Home Solar Systems, Phones and Solar-Powered Freezer

Funded current partner needs including 9 home solar systems and mobile phones for Ayowecca Uganda’s volunteers as well as 76 additional solar lanterns for the community. This funding seeds solar power into the community and prepares people to be more knowledgeable and supportive of future solar projects such as the Solar Savings Circles. We also funded a solar-powered freezer for Helpers Foundation to start a new store selling cold drinks and ice as a business initiative at the community center in Nigeria. Helpers will be supporting the Solar Savings Circles Pilot and the freezer will showcase how productive appliances can catalyze micro businesses.

Road Map: Plans for Additional Funding

The Solar Foundation is evolving to focus on more full-stack solutions such as solar-powered community centers and productive appliances to catalyze local businesses. Here is our roadmap for 2024, and how we plan to use additional funding that is raised: Solar for Rural African Women: Launch a new initiative, Solar Savings Circle pilot, 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. Develop an open-source framework that can be scaled to other communities including Ayowecca Uganda. Sustainable Funding Models: Partner with organizations to explore sustainable funding models. For example, we are working with ChangeCode.io to develop a Solar Impact Bond pilot to serve as a sustainable funding model for community centers seeking to increase the utility of their solar systems. We will begin this pilot with our local partner, OMAWA Tanzania where we will utilize funds to start new business initiatives identified by the community that build on the microgrid that we funded previously. Local Internet Access: Explore, fund and test solutions for how solar-powered Community Centers might provide affordable and reliable access to the internet e.g., Althea Network. Solar Powered Charging Centers: Explore the idea of partnering with Tech and Sun (TAS) on a solar-powered container for a charging center for the Ayowecca Uganda community that can be customized and scaled to other off-grid, underserved communities. Utilize funding to purchase a solar-powered container as available and/or to fund the infrastructure necessary to scale the Solar Savings Circles into the Ayowecca community.

Team Members

Jon 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. Coleen Chase has a bachelor’s in Business Administration and Marketing plus a minor in Technical Journalism. She has also completed courses in Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford and Moral Leadership at Acumen Academy. She is a Lead at 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-world climate action.