Clean Power

Published on February 11th, 2013 | by Chelsea

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Barclays Ponies Up £1 Million Loan For Pay-As-You-Go Solar Systems For Sub-Saharan Homes

February 11th, 2013 by  

A £1 million working capital loan from Barclays is providing the funding for British solar technology company Azuri to bring another 30,000 pay-as-you-go solar systems to homes in sub-Saharan Africa.

How IndiGo works
Image Credit: Azuri

The Azuri IndiGo “brings power at scale to off-grid customers in rural emerging markets, providing basic needs that are regarded as routine in more developed countries,” according to the web site.

For many homes in sub-Saharan Africa, lack of electricity means that lighting often comes from kerosene, which emits fumes and is expensive and dangerous. With IndiGo, users can have about eight hours of light per night and charge their mobile phones via solar power.

The pay-as-you-go scheme allows customers to pay with pre-paid weekly scratch-cards. Azuri claims that IndiGo can reduce users’ spending on kerosene and phone charging services by as much as 50 percent.

Other cool solar projects in sub-Saharan Africa include this irrigation system and this solar water purifier.

Source: Business Green

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About the Author

is a former newspaper reporter who has spent the past few years teaching English in Poland, Finland and Japan. When she wasn't teaching or writing, Chelsea was traveling Europe and Asia, sampling spicy street food along the way.


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  • Bob_Wallace

    I so like these programs. This is a way to make major improvements in people’s lives. Major improvements.

    I’ve lived with kerosene lighting and it is not pretty. When I was young I’d use a kerosene lantern to milk the cows before I left for school. Years later I used a kerosene lamp for light while I was “camping out” in the house I was building. In between I’ve spent many nights in rooms with kerosene lighting in less developed parts of the world.

    Kerosene is not high quality light. It stinks. It burns your eyes, nose and throat.

    It’s a pain to use. Refilling the lamp. Cleaning the glass.

    These micro-solar systems make so much sense. Much better lighting for a smaller overall price. Lots of local jobs for people distributing and setting up these systems. A program that should pay its own way. And it lets people leapfrog waiting for the grid to come to them.

    Did I say I like these programs?

    Bangladesh now has over a million micro-solar systems up and running. They’re installing more than one thousand per day.

    • Marshall Harris

      I concur with Bob. These micro-solar systems are neat and obviously helpful to people who need them.

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