Blogs
The Connection Between Water Security and Energy Infrastructure
Most people don't think about water and energy as interconnected resources. Yet energy production is one of the most water intensive activities on the planet, and water systems depend on reliable power just to reach a household tap. This connection between water...
Why Clean Energy Investment Is Also a Health Investment
Every conversation about clean energy tends to focus on emissions targets and cost curves. But the strongest case for shifting away from fossil fuels may not be strictly environmental. It is a public health case, backed by mortality data, hospital admission rates, and...
Solar Supports Rhino Conservation in the Maasai Mara
The Olchoro Rhino Sanctuary's two rhinos, Queen Elizabeth and Kofi Annan, drink from their new water source. In Kenya's Maasai Mara, two rhinos—the only southern white rhinos in the region—depend on a small but determined sanctuary. The Olchoro Rhino Sanctuary is on a...
Solar Cooking in the Maasai Mara: Early Findings from the Field
In Kenya's Maasai Mara, wildlife and people live side by side. The region is world-renowned for its biodiversity, including elephants, lions, rhinos, and hundreds of bird species. It is also home to the Maasai people, whose livelihoods, culture, and traditions are...
How Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Is Transforming Small-Scale Farming
For smallholder farmers across the Global South, water has long been the limiting factor between subsistence and prosperity. When the rains come, crops grow abundantly, but in periods of drought, farmers can loose everything. Climate change is making rainfall less...
Powering Economic Opportunity in Bessassi, Benin
SELF's Micro-Enterprise Center (MEC) in Bessassi, Benin offers a bustling commerce hub, powered by entrepreneurial spirit and a little bit of sunshine. Customers visit the MEC to access a variety of goods and services—many of which were not available before solar...
Understanding the Social Costs of Energy Poverty in Uganda
Energy is a foundation for health, education, dignity, and opportunity. Yet in Uganda, millions of people continue to live without access to reliable, affordable, and safe electricity. While global electrification rates have increased, energy and poverty remain deeply...
SELF’s 2025 Annual Report
For 35 years, SELF has worked to bring clean energy to off-grid and energy poor communities. We believe a brighter future is possible, for both people and the planet. By drawing on clean solar energy, we can fight climate change and unlock lasting progress against...
AI and Climate Change: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Fight the Climate Crisis
Solving the climate crisis requires more than good intentions. It requires better tools, faster decisions, and smarter use of the resources we have. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is becoming one of those tools. From predicting extreme weather events to...
What Is Food Security? The 4 Pillars Explained
Food is a fundamental human need. And yet, for hundreds of millions of people around the world, access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food cannot be taken for granted. Understanding what food security truly means, and what threatens it, is the first step toward...
How Solar Electrification of Schools Empowers Students in Energy-Poor Regions
Around the world, millions of children attend schools without reliable electricity. When classrooms go dark at sunset, learning stops. Computers cannot be used, science equipment remains idle, and students are cut off from digital resources that their peers in...
What Is Natural Farming—Climate-Smart Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, and Resilient Futures
As climate change, soil degradation, and rising input costs put increasing pressure on food systems, communities around the world are rethinking how food is grown. Natural farming has emerged as a powerful response, one that emphasizes working with nature rather than...
The Connection Between Water Security and Energy Infrastructure
Most people don't think about water and energy as interconnected resources. Yet energy production is one of the most water intensive activities on the planet, and water systems depend on reliable power just to reach a household tap. This connection between water...
Why Clean Energy Investment Is Also a Health Investment
Every conversation about clean energy tends to focus on emissions targets and cost curves. But the strongest case for shifting away from fossil fuels may not be strictly environmental. It is a public health case, backed by mortality data, hospital admission rates, and...
How Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Is Transforming Small-Scale Farming
For smallholder farmers across the Global South, water has long been the limiting factor between subsistence and prosperity. When the rains come, crops grow abundantly, but in periods of drought, farmers can loose everything. Climate change is making rainfall less...
Understanding the Social Costs of Energy Poverty in Uganda
Energy is a foundation for health, education, dignity, and opportunity. Yet in Uganda, millions of people continue to live without access to reliable, affordable, and safe electricity. While global electrification rates have increased, energy and poverty remain deeply...
AI and Climate Change: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Fight the Climate Crisis
Solving the climate crisis requires more than good intentions. It requires better tools, faster decisions, and smarter use of the resources we have. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is becoming one of those tools. From predicting extreme weather events to...
What Is Food Security? The 4 Pillars Explained
Food is a fundamental human need. And yet, for hundreds of millions of people around the world, access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food cannot be taken for granted. Understanding what food security truly means, and what threatens it, is the first step toward...
How Solar Electrification of Schools Empowers Students in Energy-Poor Regions
Around the world, millions of children attend schools without reliable electricity. When classrooms go dark at sunset, learning stops. Computers cannot be used, science equipment remains idle, and students are cut off from digital resources that their peers in...
What Is Natural Farming—Climate-Smart Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, and Resilient Futures
As climate change, soil degradation, and rising input costs put increasing pressure on food systems, communities around the world are rethinking how food is grown. Natural farming has emerged as a powerful response, one that emphasizes working with nature rather than...
Community-Owned Solar in Uganda: What It Is and How It Works
Access to clean and reliable energy remains a challenge for millions of people around the world. In Uganda, many communities lack electricity, which limits educational outcomes, healthcare delivery, and economic opportunity. Community-owned solar offers a powerful...
Exploring Community-Based Solar Farms and Gardens: The Future of Shared Clean Energy
Access to energy is more than access to light. It is access to opportunity, dignity, health, and economic security. At Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), we view renewable energy as a powerful tool for social good. Community-based solar farms and solar gardens...
Fighting Energy Poverty Through Solar Solutions: How SELF Powers Communities with Clean Energy
Access to energy is about far more than electricity. It is about opportunity, dignity, health, and economic security. For millions of people around the world, especially in low-income and rural communities, unreliable or nonexistent energy access limits progress...
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) Welcomes Dr. Daniel Kammen to Board of Directors
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Daniel Kammen to its Board of Directors. A global leader in clean energy innovation, energy access, and climate justice, Dr. Kammen brings decades of experience advancing equitable,...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy for Global Partnerships
The best things in life are the connections made by energy. The oven that bakes lasagna to perfection. The nightlight that illuminates your bedroom. The weekly video call with your best friends. Billions of people around the world never experience these connections....
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy for Peace and Justice
The wellbeing of the world’s people is inextricably tied to the wellbeing of our environment. When disaster strikes and resources are scarce, conflict often results. Sustainable Development Goal 16—”peace, justice, and strong institutions”—aims to reduce conflict and...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Habitat Conservation
What happens if the Amazon reaches a tipping point? The rainforest locks away 30% of our greenhouse emissions—keeping us safe from a global meltdown. It’s also home to one-tenth of the species on the planet, who coexist with 47 million people. And don’t forget about...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Marine Ecosystems
Sixty percent of the world’s marine ecosystems now experience instability. A 1.1°C increase in global temperatures is causing widespread changes to our oceans that may be irreversible if we don’t urgently cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable Development...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Climate Action
*Biba and Issifataou Kissira Farouk wash the solar panels so they are efficient. One day in 2019, Greenland lost 12.5 billion tons of ice. All washed away, never to find its glacial origins again. This wasn’t an accident. Climate change is altering nature beyond...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy for Responsible Production
Every time we produce and consume, we expend energy. And too often, this energy is unclean. Take a car, for instance. To assemble it, manufacturing plants release carbon. To drive it, gasoline is guzzled. To dispose of it, more landfills are built. These...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Sustainable Communities
From bustling cities to rural villages, communities come in many shapes and sizes. As climate change intensifies, each has a role to play in embracing a greener future. The path to sustainability is as diverse as the communities themselves. Urban areas occupy 3% of...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Reduced Inequalities
Every four seconds, inequality kills one person. The world’s poorest people face the deadliest threats everyday—be it hunger, gender-based violence, or disease. Many of them live in remote communities that lack opportunities and resources, such as schools and health...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy for Innovation and Infrastructure
Industry, innovation, and infrastructure are three unique sectors that depend on each other to thrive. They also all have a common input: energy. With energy, farms can be more productive, entrepreneurs can leverage the internet, and communities can pave roads and...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Economic Growth
How can solar spur economic growth? The Maldives know the answer. After spending $500 million importing fossil fuels in 2022, the country kickstarted its net-zero ambitions by installing 5 megawatts of solar capacity for its islands. Miracles happen when nations...
Powering the Goals: Affordable and Clean Energy
In rural Kenya, families spend 30% of their income purchasing kerosene—a toxic fuel that can burn homes and lungs. Too often, villagers exchange their lives for the light because darkness is not an option. Lighting is just one challenge that emerges when communities...
Powering the Goals: Solar Energy and Clean Water
Would you be able to walk 3.7 miles every day and hold 40 pounds while doing so? For the average woman in rural Africa, that’s the daily burden of water collection. Today, 2 billion people lack access to safely managed water. In these cases, people—typically women...
Fighting Time Poverty – SELF Featured in The Borgen Project
By Quinlan Bohannon Having sufficient time is essential for maintaining and improving all areas of life, including health, employment, education and personal well-being. However, individuals around the world face significant time deprivations, often due to unpaid...
Renewable Energy in Benin – SELF Featured in The Borgen Project
By Quinlan Bohannon Benin, a small West African country, is making significant strides towards a sustainable, energy-secure future. With only 57% of its population currently having access to electricity, Benin ranks low in energy consumption among African nations. The...
Energy for All — SELF Featured on the “Eco-Logic” Podcast
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)'s executive director, Bob Freling, recently appeared on the Eco-Logic podcast, where he discussed the transformative power of solar—and his personal journey to leading the charge against energy poverty. Bob reflects on SELF’s...
Power is Progress — SELF Featured on “Utopia is Now” Podcast
What does it mean to live without electricity? For nearly 1 billion people worldwide, energy poverty is more than just a statistic—it’s a daily reality that limits health, education, and economic opportunity. On a recent episode of the Utopia is Now podcast, SELF’s...
SELF Featured in Resilience
The Great Power Shift: Decentralization, Reparations, and the Fight for Energy Justice By Robert Freling When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, it didn’t just tear roofs off homes and flood city streets. It wiped out the island’s centralized electrical grid,...
SELF Featured in Solar Today
Decentralized Solar Can Help End Water and Food Insecurity By Robert Freling Two billion people lack access to safe drinking water today. The impacts are dire — on human health, on food security, on gender equality, and more. When we look at who lacks clean water, the...
SELF Featured in Energies Magazine
Gorudubu! By Elizabeth Wilder Joy may not be the first word that springs to mind when Westerners think about electrical power, but gorudubu (“joy” in the Bariba language) describes the feelings of the 40,000 adults and children benefiting from a new solar...
SELF featured in the new documentary, “Switch On”
Around the world, nearly one billion people lack safe, reliable energy—impacting lighting, literacy and education, water and food supply, communication and technology, healthcare, trade, and the economy, social programs, and government. Everything. What the UN...
SELF Executive Director Featured in the Global Citizen
SELF Executive Director Bob Freling was recently interviewed by Global Citizen writer, Brandon Wiggins, about the need to bring clean, affordable solar electricity to the world’s most vulnerable communities that have little hope of ever getting connected to the...
Solar Power Brings Clean Cooking to the Maasai Mara
A community-led initiative uses solar energy to power clean cooking, lighting, device charging, and water access MAASAI MARA, Kenya, February 11, 2026 — In Kenya’s Olchoro-Oirouwa Conservancy, Maasai communities live close to nature and far from the electric...
Solar Cooking Program Yields Gains in Uganda
New initiative equips women with entrepreneurial skills in clean cooking and business management JINJA, Uganda, November 18, 2024 – The Solar Cooking Program trains women in Uganda to become culinary entrepreneurs. An initiative of the Solar Electric Light...
Justice Microgrid to Power Free Legal Support for Rural Ugandans
A New Solar Installation Electrifies Justice Center, Courts, Town Hall, and More BALA, Kole District, Uganda, May 28, 2024 – A new solar microgrid promises to improve legal and municipal services in rural Uganda. The “Justice Microgrid,” a 14.25-kilowatt photovoltaic...
Solar Power Boosts Clean Water and Vaccine Access for 40,000 in West Africa
Solar Goes Where the Grid Won’t, Driving Better Health Outcomes for Rural Communities KALAÉ DISTRICT Benin, August 15, 2023 — In the Kalalé District of Benin, West Africa, basic health services are hard to come by. Historically, a lack of electrical infrastructure in...
Solar Supports Rhino Conservation in the Maasai Mara
The Olchoro Rhino Sanctuary's two rhinos, Queen Elizabeth and Kofi Annan, drink from their new water source. In Kenya's Maasai Mara, two rhinos—the only southern white rhinos in the region—depend on a small but determined sanctuary. The Olchoro Rhino Sanctuary is on a...
Solar Cooking in the Maasai Mara: Early Findings from the Field
In Kenya's Maasai Mara, wildlife and people live side by side. The region is world-renowned for its biodiversity, including elephants, lions, rhinos, and hundreds of bird species. It is also home to the Maasai people, whose livelihoods, culture, and traditions are...
Powering Economic Opportunity in Bessassi, Benin
SELF's Micro-Enterprise Center (MEC) in Bessassi, Benin offers a bustling commerce hub, powered by entrepreneurial spirit and a little bit of sunshine. Customers visit the MEC to access a variety of goods and services—many of which were not available before solar...
From Miles to Meters: Transforming Water Access in Uganda
https://youtu.be/mM3ZptextlQ?si=IYPMkubzML9lg0hw Energy poverty and water poverty are closely linked. Communities that lack electricity also lack the power to pump, purify, and distribute drinking water. Families trek long distances to collect water on foot....
Solar Power Brings Clean Cooking to the Maasai Mara
A community-led initiative uses solar energy to power clean cooking, lighting, device charging, and water access MAASAI MARA, Kenya, February 11, 2026 — In Kenya’s Olchoro-Oirouwa Conservancy, Maasai communities live close to nature and far from the electric...
Solar-Powered Water Systems in Rural Uganda: A New Project in Bukyerimba
In rural Uganda, two-thirds of people still lack access to safe water. Every sip is a gamble, and it is women and girls who lose the most. That’s why the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) has just broken ground on a new project, which will advance health and equality...
Solar Energy for Low-Income Families: Beating the Heat on the Border
In the scorching summer heat along the U.S.-Mexico border, electricity isn't just a luxury—it’s a lifeline. But for many low-income families, high utility bills make it difficult to keep the lights on, the air conditioning running, or even food safely stored in the...
Powering Legal Aid in Rural Uganda
https://youtu.be/kBpd7Vb_zqg?si=iWGA6O5OKtuaSHeJ When the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) launched the Justice Microgrid last year, its goal was ambitious. In partnership with BarefootLaw, SELF sought to harness solar energy to bring equity and justice to thousands...
Happy Harvest from Benin!
For over a decade, SELF's Solar Market Gardens (SMGs) have tackled food insecurity through a combination of solar power and drip irrigation. The SMG program helps rural farming cooperatives increase yields and improve resilience, lending to gains in local nutrition....
Turning the Lights on in Haiti
It was Christmas Eve, and the lights came back on for five hundred students in Haiti. Several months ago, SELF received an urgent plea. A K-12 residential school in Haiti needed a new solar battery bank, and their students' safety depended on it. Haiti continues to...
Solar Cooking Program Yields Gains in Uganda
New initiative equips women with entrepreneurial skills in clean cooking and business management JINJA, Uganda, November 18, 2024 – The Solar Cooking Program trains women in Uganda to become culinary entrepreneurs. An initiative of the Solar Electric Light...
Justice Microgrid to Power Free Legal Support for Rural Ugandans
A New Solar Installation Electrifies Justice Center, Courts, Town Hall, and More BALA, Kole District, Uganda, May 28, 2024 – A new solar microgrid promises to improve legal and municipal services in rural Uganda. The “Justice Microgrid,” a 14.25-kilowatt photovoltaic...
SELF’s 2025 Annual Report
For 35 years, SELF has worked to bring clean energy to off-grid and energy poor communities. We believe a brighter future is possible, for both people and the planet. By drawing on clean solar energy, we can fight climate change and unlock lasting progress against...
SELF’s 2024 Annual Report
Across the globe, communities are using solar energy to power resilience, opportunity, and hope—and your support makes it possible. The Solar Electric Light Fund’s 2024 Annual Report highlights how solar energy is changing lives in meaningful, lasting ways. Families...
SELF’s 2023 Annual Report
In 2023, SELF developed new technologies and programs that expand our global understanding of energy. It’s not just the lights overhead; it’s health, safety, opportunity, and prosperity. A new microgrid connects rural people to legal aid. A solar cooking program...
SELF’s 2022 Annual Report
Thanks to your support, SELF’s projects touched even more people in 2022. From solar cooking to solar water pumping to solar vaccine refrigeration and more, our work spanned a wide range of impact areas—showing the many ways in which solar energy can improve lives....
SELF’s 2021 Annual Report
SELF’s mission has long been to deliver solar energy solutions to rural and marginalized communities. What’s more important than the energy itself, however, is what it enables. Your support in 2021 meant that more families were fed, more children were vaccinated, and...
View SELF’s 2020 Annual Report
Dear Friends, It is a pleasure to share SELF’s 2020 Annual Report with you all—a year of extraordinary challenges brought on by COVID-19. I applaud the SELF staff and our project partners from their determination to fulfill their commitments to each other. As a...
From Miles to Meters: Transforming Water Access in Uganda
https://youtu.be/mM3ZptextlQ?si=IYPMkubzML9lg0hw Energy poverty and water poverty are closely linked. Communities that lack electricity also lack the power to pump, purify, and distribute drinking water. Families trek long distances to collect water on foot....
Solar Energy for Low-Income Families: Beating the Heat on the Border
In the scorching summer heat along the U.S.-Mexico border, electricity isn't just a luxury—it’s a lifeline. But for many low-income families, high utility bills make it difficult to keep the lights on, the air conditioning running, or even food safely stored in the...
Powering Legal Aid in Rural Uganda
https://youtu.be/kBpd7Vb_zqg?si=iWGA6O5OKtuaSHeJ When the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) launched the Justice Microgrid last year, its goal was ambitious. In partnership with BarefootLaw, SELF sought to harness solar energy to bring equity and justice to thousands...
Lighting the Way to Safety
This holiday season, SELF is raising awareness for the important role of light in our lives. This article explores why lighting public spaces is important for safe communities. For Nadiope Loy, life changed when the sun went down. In her rural village in central...
Fighting Injustice in Uganda: Inside the “Justice Microgrid”
A new SELF documentary explores how solar electricity is helping underserved people get justice in Uganda. In the rural Kole District, electricity is hard to come by. This means streets go unlit at night, community services are under-resourced, and citizens have...
SELF featured in the new documentary, “Switch On”
Around the world, nearly one billion people lack safe, reliable energy—impacting lighting, literacy and education, water and food supply, communication and technology, healthcare, trade, and the economy, social programs, and government. Everything. What the UN...
New Video: The Benin Village of Dadi Welcomes Clean Water
SELF has begun its project to provide 24 solar-pump water stations to villages in the Kalalé District of Benin. No matter how much testing has been done beforehand, it is always a little stressful waiting to see if the new well is going to have enough water pressure...
Katansama: Turning to the Sun
We are pleased to share a short documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Yan Chun Su. Shot in the spring of 2018, it chronicles SELF’s efforts to bring solar electricity to the Arhuaco village of Katansama, a newly established Indigenous community on the northern coast...
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Be the first to hear exciting news and project updates from SELF.