An ordinary evening at home at the house of an Ethiopian family in the village of Akat. The parents are watching the evening news in the living room, while the children do they homework in the light of a ceiling lamp in the room next door. Before, this would not have been possible: the expensive and smoky kerosene could be used only for the most important purposes. Now kerosene has been replaced by efficient, environmentally friendly solar panels that have also cleaned the indoor air.

Gaia, a consultancy for sustainable business, was leading a project that made clean energy accessible to a total of 200 000 households and small businesses in Ethiopia in 2017. New and sustainable business models were at the core of the work. Microfinance institutions could use them to provide large numbers of customers safe and affordable renewable energy systems, such as solar panels.

Gaia received support from the Nordic Climate Facility (NCF), a challenge fund financing climate change projects. Finland supports NCF through the Nordic Development Fund (NDF).

Read more about the results of Gaia’s project in Ethiopia

Photo: Gaia, graphics: Juho Hiilivirta