SolarCity To Provide Solar Lighting To Schools Without Electricity

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SolarCity, a leading US solar PV company, has now agreed to provide a school in need with solar-powered lighting for every one megawatt of solar PV systems it installs in 2014. This international effort is titled the “Give Power Foundation™.”

This facilitates evening classes as well as community gatherings at those schools. The solar-powered lighting systems work as follows: solar panels charge a battery pack, which then powers lamps at night. According to SolarCity, globally, 291 million children attend primary schools (aka elementary schools) that lack electricity.

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“The United Nations has set the ambitious goal of ensuring that everyone in the world has access to electricity by 2030, while fighting climate change, and we are deeply committed to making this happen through the Give Power Foundation,” said Hayes Barnard, SolarCity’s Chief Revenue Officer and President of Give Power Foundation. “Now every SolarCity customer will play a part in giving light to a community in need.”

“The Foundation is partnering with buildOn, an international nonprofit organization that builds schools in developing countries and runs afterschool service programs in United States high schools, to help deliver power to communities in need. The Foundation will continue exploring and developing new partnerships with international organizations and social enterprises to help serve additional communities without electricity,” SolarCity notes.

Give Power Foundation is a California-registered non-profit. It anticipates that it will be granted tax-exempt status as a 501c3 organization in 2014.

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Image Credit: SolarCity.

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Nicholas Brown

Has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

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