The proposed project will supply students in day schools with high quality solar lanterns that they can use in their homes in the evening for their evening study, in an affordable and sustainable way. The project aims to eradicate use of dangerous kerosene by the students while on the other hand accelerating use of renewable energy. The project will use locally available natural resources to improve the lives of the poor. The pricing of the solar lanterns will be very low so that it is cheaper than kerosene and affordable to the poor in the community.
Ikisaya Solar Energy Group (ISEG) is a self-help group working in Kitui County, Kenya to provide energy services using solar energy to population in Ikisaya and surrounding areas. The main energy services provided using solar energy are lighting and phone charging. The services are designed for the rural poor population without electricity connection. The group has been operating from 2011 when it was registered. It was started by University of Oslo as a way of studying the best way to provide basic energy services to poor population in an affordable and sustainable way. They have been running both pay-as-you-go and rental services for solar lanterns at the center at Ikisaya and also through agents so as to spread the services to a wider area.
Mutitu District of Kitui County is one of the underserved areas with very few electricity connections. The population in the rural areas mainly use kerosene for lighting. On the other hand, the area has very good solar irradiation making use of solar energy for lighting a very good option. Unfortunately the high quality solar gadgets are unaffordable for the majority of the poor people. The few that manage to buy end up buying very poor quality solar lanterns due to cost. We are proposing to supply solar lanterns through schools so that the lantern will be dedicated to the students for their studies so as to improve their academic performance, their health, the economy as well as the environment in general. The students will be allowed more than one lantern so that they can also take to other members of the family. Competitive bidding will be done for the solar lanterns funded by SGP. The lanterns to be used must be approved by Lighting Global (see www.lightingglobal.org) and have a two year warranty so as to ensure quality. They also must have pay-as-you-go facility so as to enable the students to pay a small down payment of Ksh 100 and a daily payment of Ksh 15.

Business as usual for pay-as-you-go solar products (deposit of Ksh 1,000) is still not affordable to many poor families and that is why it is important for GEF SGP to fund this proposal for our organization to implement a project specifically designed for the poor. Our project is lowering the initial deposit so as to make high quality solar products affordable to the poorest of the poor currently using kerosene and dry cell batteries for lighting. Kerosene is expensive in the long-run but since it can be bought in small quantities of Ksh 20 or even Ksh 10, the poorest of the poor goes for it since that is what they can afford. The poor who can afford solar lanterns end up buying very poor quality lanterns that are cheap and breakdown within a short time.