News

Last week Solar Bora recieved great news!

We are happy to announce that we have received a second grant from Vinnova as a part of their program Innovative startups.  For us, this means that we can speed up our work in Mali. We have set our goals high, and with this grant we will be able to reach them.

Right now, we will focus our work on delivering a well functioning solar driven cooking solution to the kitchen at Direction Nationale des Eaux et Forêts in Bamako, to minimize their usage of fire wood. We will also be delivering a solar solution for a girls school in Kenya, to replace their diesel generator and provide a more reliable and sustainable solution.

In Sweden, where we have our head office, the electricity grid is well developed and the energy is cheap. We seldom have power outages. The few times there is an outage it normally just take a couple of hours before the power comes back again and people can continue with whatever they were doing. This is an incredible luxury that is not avaliable for everyone. One of the 17 sustainable development goals says that it should be, and we couldn’t agree more.

Goal 7 says that we should ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. The UN states that “sustainable energy is opportunity – it transforms lives, economies and the planet”. We want to do this. We will do this. We are doing it right now.

Solar Bora received a first step of funding from the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, as a part of the program called Innovative Startups (for more information in Swedish, click here). As part of this funding Solar Bora have now completed the initial prototype development steps and verified these in a field trial in Mali.

Some of the conclusions from this field trial were:

• The Solar Bora concept definitely works!
  • You can cook food using solar & battery powered induction stoves.
• Transitioning from traditional cooking using wood or charcoal to induction stoves is easier than predicted.
  • Some support and training might facilitate to maximize the efficiency and minimize the efforts for the women cooking, but to get the food just as good as before is easy.
• Industrialization of the prototype will be the next step.
  • The market demand for the product seem to be significant, but it of course requires a product that can sustain the conditions where it is supposed to be used.

The traditional way of cooking with charcoal or fire wood either requires many hours per day of active work to collect wood or costs around 40% of the household disposable income. It also generates Household Air Pollution (HAP), which is bad for your health. An example of this traditional way of cooking can be seen below.

With Solar Bora you change the way of cooking to what you can see below. This is saving the women 3 – 4 hours per day since the cooking goes faster and they never need to fetch wood or go to buy charcoal. It is also eliminating HAP and saving on average 7 ton CO₂ per year and family.

Solar Bora is grateful for the support from Vinnova and the program for Innovative Startups in Sweden. Without this support it would have been significantly more difficult to perform this field trial and to develop solutions that further the transition to a sustainable development of the Sahel region.

Solar Bora have analysed the potential market in Kenya, and we are confident that it is ready for the uniquely differentiated SolarBora offering.

We are therefore happy to announce that we have recruited a country manager for Kenya, we are welcoming Ednah Chebet to our team! Chebet is supporting the Solar Bora expansion in Kenya in regards to all practical issues related to sales, delivery and customer satisfaction.

Chebet has a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management from Moi University, and has great knowledge of the market for Solar products in Kenya. She has previously worked at the National Environment and Management Authority (NEMA) in Kenya and as a sales person at a private company. She currenty lives in western Kenya with her family.

We are happy to have her with us!