Solar Sister
Model & Strategy
Solar Sister is a green energy revolution powered by women’s enterprise. Providing a grassroots solution to a global energy crisis, Solar Sister combines the breakthrough potential of clean energy technology with a deliberately women-centered direct sales network. Working in rural Africa, Solar Sister recruits, trains and supports women to become Solar Sister Entrepreneurs. The women build sustainable businesses selling solar lamps, mobile phone chargers and fuel efficient cook stoves. Using their natural networks of family, friends and neighbors to provide the most effective distribution channel to rural and hard to reach customers the women earn much needed income to support their families and provide a vital service to their communities. Access to clean energy and simple light has profound benefits including improved education, health and economic outcomes.
Katherine Lucey, founder and CEO of Solar Sister, brings 20 years investment banking and non-profit leadership experience to her role as social entrepreneur. She is an Ashoka East Africa Fellow and a winner of Social Venture Network 2011 Innovation Award and a Global Social Benefit Incubator Fellow for 2011 at the Santa Clara University Center for Science and Technology. Katherine currently serves on the UN Foundation initiative the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and is a co-chair of the Supply Chain and Entrepreneurship Committee of the Sustainable Energy for All Practitioner Network.
IMPACT
Solar Sister has built a network of more than 3,800 women entrepreneurs who earn income while bringing access to clean energy technologies to more than 1.5M people in Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
In the long term, Solar Sister provides livelihoods and energy access in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa – breaking the cycle of poverty by creating economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs and access to energy for the women, their families, and their off-grid communities.
Solar Sister News
-
New issue of @energia_org Energia News focused on results from its Gender and Energy Research program! It shows tha… https://t.co/eSp51VdAhK
-
RT @EforA_Coalition: Yesterday, we wrapped up our #AppliancesEmpower campaign, a global effort to advance #GenderEquality & #Inclusion thro…
-
RT @DamilolaSDG7: Access to energy is critical to care for & protect the most vulnerable in the fight against #COVID19. Read my @TRF op-e…
-
Many households in developing countries rely on radios for news, education, and entertainment while schools and oth… https://t.co/UWpXBVrBeY
-
RT @KatherineHLucey: Who is ready for some good news? Yeah, me too. Read the latest "Impact Story" about @Solar_Sister Entrepreneur Onyinye…
-
As #energyaccess is critical for quality healthcare, our work is more important than ever. In spite of this challen… https://t.co/CfDOePSbKk
-
RT @KatherineHLucey: At @Solar_Sister, we believe that women's voices, knowledge, and expertise are 🔑 to building a strong response to #COV…
-
RT @SETIenergy: A 2013 study by Adair-Rohani et al. of 11 major sub-Saharan African countries found that roughly 1 in 4 health facilities h…
-
RT @REANigeria: Thank you @Solar_Sister for supporting women in Nigeria and all around Africa. You are intentionally increasing the number…
-
RT @energia_org: On March, 31st @energia_org will launch the new issue of #ENERGIANews, based on the evidence of our five-year research pro…
-
RT @EforA_Coalition: We would like to extend a warm thank you to our partners @Solar_Sister @PowerAfricaUS @UNCDFCleanStart @Energia_org @C…
-
RT @SEforALLorg: Globally 840 million people don't have access to #electricity, around 3 billion people have to rely on dirty fuels for #co…
-
The work we do is even more important in this time of global crisis, as it is often those underserved communities w… https://t.co/tF1ZFGsd4S
-
The latest The Solar Sister Daily! https://t.co/wo8qcboZA2 Thanks to @annalouiesuss @ASDCleanEnergy @stevesong #covid19 #covidー19
-
RT @Power4All2025: Youth and women bring significant value to the #EnergyAccess sector but gender stereotypes, internal business culture, t…
-
“Everything about Solar Sister is educative. I’ve learned a lot about being confident in myself and being persisten… https://t.co/Dx2h690jac
-
Our team members travel via many modes of transportation to bring #cleanenergy to the hardest to reach communities!… https://t.co/Zdo26IYV8M
-
RT @Power4All2025: We must shine a spotlight on the people living w/o #EnergyAccess, not only because they are the most vulnerable to #Clim…