Archive for Solar Power

Solar Schoolbags

When Thato Kgatlhanye was 18 and fresh out of high school, she knew she wanted to do something for the underprivileged communities in South Africa where she grew up. She and her friend Rea Ngwane immediately founded the social enterprise ‘Rethaka’ without a single clue what they were going to do. 2 years later, they found the idea that would impact thousands of children across South Africa.

At age 21 in 2014, Thato Kgatlhanye founded the social enterprise Repurpose Schoolbags which takes plastic bags, upcycles them into durable schoolbags, and installs solar-powered lighting on the outside. The bag charges in the sun during the day, and turns into a portable light for the children to study with at night. It is also made with reflective material so the children are easily visible to traffic on their way to and from school.

The idea was inspired by Thato’s mother and the local impoverished communities of South Africa. Thato’s mother studied by candlelight when she was a child, and usually the candle would only last until Wednesday of the school week, meaning she couldn’t study on Thursday or Friday. Currently, many children in South Africa use plastic bags as schoolbags, and don’t have adequate lighting to study after school. Thato wanted to provide a sustainable solution, and so Repurpose Schoolbags was born.

Thato plans to light up 24 African nations, and has won over $40,000 in business competitions to sustain the enterprise. Her business’s impact is growing, and she was featured on the front of Forbes in February 2016. In the future she plans to expand the concept of solar lighting to raincoats for children, but for now her organization’s focus is on getting the solar schoolbags to as many children as possible. Her work has inspired many others, and I hope to see her company featured more as her influence expands across Africa.

Photo courtesy of repurposeschoolbags.com

Angaza – Illuminating The World

Angaza Design is a company that seeks to eradicate darkness from African homes by selling solar power lighting systems that are cheaper than traditional lighting sources and function like a pre paid cell phone.

The Problem

The Founder, Lesley Silverthorn, started researching the concept for Angaza in her senior year in the Design School at Stanford. She found a huge problem for energy distribution in East Africa, as  many families are located off the grid and use Kerosene to light their home at night. Additionally, the other energy options, which include solar power were effective, but too expensive.

The Solution

Angaza combines “pay-as-you-go” technology with solar power generation. This technology allows families to pay in small increments to pay for the solar power energy. The first product Angaza has is called the SoLite which is a 3 watt LED light that doubles as a cell phone charging station. The technology works when a family sends a payment to Angaza for their lighting, Angaza voice calls the cell phone of the family and the cellphone (through sound) transmits data to “tell” the unit to illuminate for the allotted prepaid amount. When the payment time is completed the light shuts off.

The biggest problem Angaza faces is sales and distribution as the customer base is off  the grid rural African families and businesses. They are overcoming this challenge by having  local sales representatives in Africa that believe Africa needs to be illuminated.

In Africa, the lights are now switched on, as Angaza is creating new products and embedding their technology into other products, as well.