Sungevity launches solar donation program for Zambia

Sungevity launches solar donation program for Zambia  When Danny Kennedy founded Sungevity, he said he wanted everyone to have solar.

It is that founding principle that drives the company’s new charitable program to donate a solar light kit to a Zambian school for every residential solar installation it makes in the United States.

The solar leasing company formed a partnership with “Every Child Has a Light” program through Empowered by Light. The kits Sungevity will donate are compact lighting solutions in reusable packaging containing a triple LED lamp, a solar panel and a built-in USB connection to charge mobile devices.

“We really want to work at sharing the sun,” Kennedy said “This program allows us to spread the sunshine to other countries.”

Kennedy said Sungevity has had a tremendously successful year, and the company wants to give back through this program.

Kennedy’s idea behind creating Sungevity was to make solar accessible to average American families by allowing them to lease the solar panels on their roofs instead of shelling out the significant upfront cost.

Now the idea has expanded, and he aims to make solar accessible to everyone. The program is a way to give something and to do something charitable and good in celebration of the company’s success and as a way to further Sungevity’s mission of providing solar for everyone.

The light units are small and compact. They’re affordable, and they replace kerosene lamps in many cases, which have harmful fumes and are costly to keep fueled.

“These lights can make a real impact on outcomes for families and whole villages,” Kennedy said.

Statistics have shown that villages with the lights have increases in education levels because children are able to study in the dark more easily, Kennedy said.

Marco Krapels, Empowered by Light co-founder, has said that the program is enabling developing nations like Zambia to leap-frog the traditional energy sources that the industrialized world has become so dependent upon.

Image courtesy of Empowered by Light.