Mobisol – winner of the Ashden Judges’Special Award – sells powerful solar home systems that allow customers to use fridges, watch TV and charge mobile phones without relying on fossilfuels, and using an affordable mobile payment plan. [Photo/Mobisol]
Three sustainable energy organizations working in East Africa – Futurepump, Haileybury Youth Trust and Mobisol – have won in the prestigious 2017 Ashden Awards.
The Ashden Awards are given to pioneers in sustainable energy and are a globally recognised measure of excellence.
From developing solar irrigation pumps to promoting low-carbon buildings to providing powerful solar home systems, all three organisations have been recognised as leaders in their field in the region.
Winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy and Water, supported by the Waterloo Foundation, Futurepump makes a low-cost, highly efficient and portable solar irrigation pump for small holder farmers in Kenya and around the world, allowing them to reduce costs and increase their income by growing more crops all year round.
Millions of small holder farmers around the world rely on rainfall water to irrigate their crops.
This is becoming very unpredictable and they are turning to fuel-powered pumps that are expensive and pollute the environment.
Portable solar-powered pumps are a cleaner, cheaper alternative that allow farmers to grow more crops during more of the year.
According to the Ashden judges: “Futurepump’s pioneering solar-powered irrigation technology is helping smallholder farmers irrigate more land and leapfrog to year-round sustainable crop growing which is simultaneously increasing their productivity and income as well as allowing them to move away from polluting diesel.”
Haileybury Youth Trust (HYT) is the winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Buildings,supported by the Grosvenor Group. HYT is a charity training young people in Uganda to build using interlocking blocks made of compressed earth – a low-cost, carbon-saving alternative to the environmentally damaging fired brick.
Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations on earth, meaning that the requirement for new housing, schools and other infrastructure is fueling mass deforestation due to the manufacture of fired clay bricks.
Through its training programme, HYT is creating much needed jobs for young people in local communities and the organisation particularly targets those currently not in work.
According to the Ashden judges: “The benefits of this scheme go way beyond the environmental impact – reducing deforestation and curbing CO2 emissions through a low carbon building technique – and encompass health, training and employment opportunities, even access to education. HYT’s model is a simple one but is scalable and robust.”
Mobisol – winner of the Ashden Judges’Special Award – sells powerful solar home systems that allow customers to use fridges, watch TV and charge mobile phones without relying on fossilfuels, and using an affordable mobile payment plan.
Some 80,000 solar home systems have been installed in East Africa so far, benefitting more than 400,000 people.
Mobisol’s high power solar systems can be used not just for homes but for small businesses, enabling entrepreneurialcustomers to earn additional income.
The 13 winning organisations will receive their Award on Thursday 15 June at a prestigious ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London.