Solar Sister
Solar Sister
Women selling solar products drive social and economical changes
Happy Friday! I’m introducing a new section here, called Spreading Love. This is the place to focus more on the personal side of the story: life-changing events, founders’ story, how those companies are helping their customers, etc.
Why? The world is already full of tragedies and grumpy people complaining about everything.
🙏 Good Bits
Solar set to overtake other energy sources by 2027 — Myles McCormick
Robots helping children with disabilities stay on track — Keely Khoury
High seas treaty: historic deal to protect international waters finally reached at UN — Karen McVeigh
😍 Spreading Love
“I was able to pay part of my daughter’s school fees. And that one has gone down in the record of my life.”
“Before now I struggled a lot to make ends meet as I am a single mother taking care of my children here in Bauchi after my husband remarried, but with [the] Women’s Entrepreneurship Project, I have been able to support my family from the savings I get from my solar business.” — Mary Dauda
“With solar light I can weave my baskets even at night.”
Hilaria Paschal believes that when women contribute to their household income, they are investing in their future. She uses her own lamp to weave baskets and rugs by night, which she later sells at the market.
🌰 Good business in a nutshell
Company • Solar Sister
Areas of Impact • Clean energy, Girls’ Education, Poverty Alleviation
Saving the world • 8,500 (87% women) Solar Sister Entrepreneurs
How they started • Katherine Lucey met a farmer using solar light to make chickens produce more eggs. The extra money she made selling more eggs, was used to improve the family’s living standard and also to build a community school
What they do • Train and provide solar products for women to become entrepreneurs
How they make money • Sales of products at cost to Solar Sister Entrepreneurs and Grants
Revenue • $3.3 million
Who started everything • Katherine Lucey and Neha Misra
"if you want to see things happen at a global level start at the village level. Give women the tools and the education and they will drive the change." — Melinda French Gates
📖 The long version
🧩 Problems
Over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity
Energy poverty has negative consequences on the health, education, and incomes of women in particular
940 million people depend on harmful fuels for cooking
Smoke from cooking over open fires causes 2.6 million premature deaths
💡 How they started | How they are going
While working in Africa, Lucey saw the urgent need for access to clean energy solutions. She also saw the potential of women as key drivers of economic growth and social change in these communities.
🌎 Saving the world
8,500 (87% women) Solar Sister Entrepreneurs
894,848 tonnes of CO2 emissions mitigated
$215 million in economic benefits to customers
3,516,348 people reached
☄️ Impact Model
Empower women entrepreneurs to drive social and economic change in their communities through the adoption of clean energy solutions. How?
Recruitment and training • Solar Sister recruit and train women entrepreneurs, to start and grow their clean energy businesses.
Access to clean energy products • Solar Sister buy high-quality clean energy products in bulk, such as solar lamps, clean cookstoves, and mobile phone chargers and sell to Solar Sisters entrepreneurs at cost.
Door-to-door sales • Solar Sister entrepreneurs mark up these clean energy products and sell them door-to-door in their communities, using their local knowledge and networks.
💰 Let’s talk money *
Sales $1,124,408
Grants $1,655,357
Contributions $ 550,275
💪 Join the cause
https://solarsister.org/career/
🎬 Who started everything
Katherine Lucey
Neha Misra