Imagine a world where everyone has access to affordable, clean, renewable power.
About SolarAid
Power to the people
Two of the biggest threats facing humanity today are climate change and global poverty. SolarAid helps to combat both, simply by bringing clean, renewable power to the poorest people in the world.
Fighting poverty
Right now, two billion people have no access to electricity. They rely on burning fuels such as kerosene and wood for light and heat, which is highly toxic and expensive. Having solar power improves people's health, income and education. That's because solar power can enable poor people to cook food, pump clean water, run fridges, light homes, schools and hospitals, farm more effectively, and much more.
Fighting climate change
Climate change is mainly due to the massive and continuing use of burning fossil fuels for energy. This has pumped vast amounts of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. At the same time, we have destroyed vast tracts of forest, which has released billions of tonnes of carbon.
By replacing carbon-emitting products with solar power, and reducing our
dependency on burning wood and fossil fuels we can alleviate global warming.
Fact:
The average kerosene lamp, used widely across the developing world, creates around a tonne of carbon over seven years. Replacing these lamps with solar lanterns will lead to significant reductions in carbon emissions.
To find out more information about SolarAid please visit http://www.solar-aid.org/
Our involvement with SolarAid
Gwyn has been volunteering with the charity ever since its launch, helping out with its launch event at city hall in London and many festivals / events.

Gwyn helping out at Glastonbury 2008 (could be 1974)

SolarAid at Rise Festival 2008
For 2009 SolarAid partner with the Big Chill music festival.
The charity wanted to prove the power of Solar technology by charging peoples mobile phones (mostly iPhones at this festival!) after a few drinks in the pub me (Gwyn) and Lachlan (a SolarCentury person) came up with the idea of portable mobile phone chargers.
After about 6 months work from a number of people (and Firefly) the Solar Roller was born;

We charged over 1100 phones over the weekend - all from the power of the sun.
In the following video by Positive TV you can find more about SolarAid at the Big Chill. Shaun features in the Video charging peoples phones up at the "Sun Hut" and you can see the battery boxes that Ryan helped to build.








