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
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RT @MothersInvent: Help stand up for Indigenous women protecting the #AmazonRainforest! Sign @AmazonWatch's petition here: https://t.co/iMF…
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RT @UNCDFCleanStart: Some incredibly inspiring women leading the efforts against #climatechange, including @KatherineHLucey, @LightSolar --…
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Off-Grid Solar Power Is Making Africa's Emerging Economies A Little Brighter https://t.co/ED0kbMSe67
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Sign the petition: Demand BlackRock stop financing Amazon destruction! Sign here: https://t.co/61g1G99U3v
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The Amazon forest produces over 20% of the world's oxygen. See @Aljazeera report here - https://t.co/xqSvr0r5WR - a… https://t.co/mu7HzEbhaF
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RT @SDG2030: #SolarEnergy cartoon sums up energy solution and demystify the energy game @AidanRGallagher @BernieSanders @LeoDiCaprio @isol…
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“A global energy transition, which is at the core of real climate action, is not only technically feasible but also… https://t.co/yltGFEHUBa
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RT @TheBeamMagazine: "It’s no longer five minutes to midnight when it comes to climate change, it’s rather five seconds to midnight." — @Ch…
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RT @Strike4Youth: Hey @BorisJohnson you’ve just been signed up for a Geography GCSE to teach you about climate change 🌍 We can help you re…
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RT @ruchionomics: Doing my bit to make this go viral 😊😊 https://t.co/hhzbhGLEs7
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“Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in all of 2018,“ Forest Fires S… https://t.co/RInkuEmzkM
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RT @GretaThunberg: 1 year ago I started school striking for the climate outside the Swedish parliament, simply because something had to be…
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We're excited that @Solar_Sister CEO @KatherineHLucey will speak at @wef on Africa in Sept about #womendriven solu… https://t.co/8ckyEKixAA
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5 Books About Climate Change and Sustainability you Need to Read -- @TheBeamMagazine always bringing excellent cov… https://t.co/0YFVR3CHkg
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Join Solar Sister at the first global south Divest / Invest Summit in Cape Town - Chinenye Anekwe will be there tal… https://t.co/w1BwhDpdmH
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We are excited to speak at The Global Climate Divest-Invest Summit in Sept - driving capital from fossil fuels into… https://t.co/N1tjrNdmb3
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Hello from Mugeta village #Tanzania + these pioneering women entrepreneurs! Featuring @greenlightplanet popular sol… https://t.co/GbaTRguIBg
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RT @DrKWilkinson: Climate change is potent feedback – that the way we've been doing things isn't working. (You know...extractive capitalism…