The Solar Light Project, based in the Caprivi Region of Namibia, invests funds earned from wildlife tourism ventures in a rural electrification program centered on the sale of solar-powered lights and laterns.  Funding provided by locally-run nature conservancies, which manage natural resources for the benefit of community members, helps reduce the cost of each $20.00 solar-powered light to $7.00, or what a family typically spends on candles each month.  In 2009, EE lit nearly 1000 homes through the Solar Light Project. 

EE is also working through its Elephant Energy Shops Pilot Project to establish a replicable micro-franchise model for the distribution of appropriate sustainable energy technologies, like solar-powered lights, crank radios, solar-powered cell phone chargers, and clean-burning cookstoves, in rural Africa.  Our first energy shop opened in Katima Mulilo, Namibia in October 2010. 

EE's Women's Energy Action Project focuses on studying and meeting the energy needs of women by establishing women's groups to evaluate, distribute, and finance appropriate sustainable energy technologies.  Currently, EE is working with over 60 women in Namibia and Zambia to assess lighting, cooking, and communication technologies.

Finally, EE's Solar Schools Partnerships Project, to be intiated in 2011, will distribute various small-scale energy technologies, like solar lights, to schools in rural Namibia.  These technologies will be integrated into curriculum focusing on energy and the environment.

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Elephant Energy Shops
Solar Light Project
Women's Energy Action
Solar Schools Partnerships