Rural Energy Foundation (REF) facilitates access to renewable energy to rural households in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2007 REF has facilitated access to solar energy for more than 500,000 people at a cost of less than EUR 3 per connected person. Please download our Annual Report of 2010, 2009 or 2008 for further details. In 2010 REF won the International Ashden Awards and the EU Sustainable Energy Awards.
REF is transforming to SolarNow
Since 2003 REF has worked to understand and then address the structural issues in the domestic solar energy market in Sub Saharan Africa, focussing on quality, distribution and affordability. Taking a hands-on approach, REF has: (1) advised and helped hundreds of rural entrepreneurs to start and expand solar energy enterprises; (2) initiated and completed numerous promotion campaigns to boost demand for solar energy; and (3) piloted consumer credit schemes.
The approach has worked and by December 2010 a pan-African distribution network of 206 skilled and SolarNow branded installers and installers had emerged selling around 40,000 Solar Systems per year. The final step in REFs mission is to create a self-supporting organisation for delivering affordable access to high-quality solar home systems for millions of households in rural Africa.
SolarNow is that stand-alone entity and will implement and scale up its multifaceted solution of cost effective distribution, quality installation and consumer credit. REF's operations, staff and subsidiaries will during 2011 be transitioned to SolarNow.
The transformation and launch of SolarNow is made possible thanks to a financial grant from DOEN Foundation and the Daey Ouwens Fund, a fund from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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