Our solar light carbon offset projects we help companies offset their unavoidable emissions, protect the planet, and do good for people at the same time.

At Namene Solar, we’re proud to deliver solar light and power to our customers to help power the world with clean energy. We know how important solar is in the global fight against climate change.

That’s why we’re tackling the climate crisis on several fronts.

As a solar company, we design, finance and install solar for individuals, homes and businesses. But we’re also embarking on a mission to help companies compensate for their unavoidable carbon emissions with our carbon offset projects.

In November last year we announced the certification of our first carbon offset project in Zambia, certified by Gold Standard.

It’s been a long journey to reach this point, with a many months, years even, of work behind the scenes to achieve this prestigious certification.

When we develop our projects, we speak directly with our customer base and find out how to deliver the best solar product to meet their lighting needs. We want to give them the right product at the right time and at the right price.

That’s where carbon credits come in.

Why carbon credits?

In Zambia, many off-grid and rural customers are unable to afford a single lump sum payment for a solar light. They are trapped in a cycle of  overpaying varying amounts for fuel for kerosene lamps over a longer period of time. This isn’t just harmful to their finances. These lamps are a fire hazard that emit toxic fumes, and CO2 emissions. Our project replace these lamps with a clean, safe, renewable solar light that each avoids 92kg CO2 per year.

But we know that our solar lights do much more than avoid carbon emissions. They improve learning for children, protect our customers’ health and reduce poverty, saving families an average of $150.

With a renewable source of light at no additional cost, our customers can afford more time to study after dark and more hours to run home businesses. They no longer have to consider the cost of fuel consumption in these decisions. Their education and economic outcomes are improved by the presence of a single solar light at a truly affordable price, subsided by the sale of carbon credits.

To do this, we’re working with companies who want to take meaningful climate action and show true leadership in sustainability by supporting the scaling and development of our Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs).

This goes far beyond simply offsetting emissions. By co-developing our projects to deliver solar lights to a community, village or region, companies immediately improve off-grid families’ finances and education outcomes with clean energy access.

Improving lives with solar light

In Namibia, our second certified carbon offset project was the first Gold Standard project in the country. The off-grid and peri-urban population is low density and scattered across the nation. This makes distribution of solar lighting a challenging and costly process.

As a result many of these last-mile homes are left behind in the race to universal modern energy access. But our projects are embedded in local communities. By working with schools and in-country partners we can reach every off-grid home in Namibia with our solar lights without marking-up our product price point.

The scale of our carbon offset projects in Namibia is nationwide, with the aim to provide clean lighting to all households by 2030 and contribute in achieving SDG 7 in the country.

At Namene Solar, we measure our solar lights carbon project contributions to three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. But we know from speaking to our customers that our lights have a much broader impact.

The latest push to rapidly scale the global carbon market to $100 billion a year is one that I welcome. For many businesses and industries it is not possible to entirely eliminate carbon emissions from their supply chains and operations.

Through our power projects, we are helping companies transition to a low carbon energy supply by helping them reduce their emissions internally. This is complemented by our carbon projects to provide offsets for the unavoidable emissions. Climate finance is key to support and facilitate this transition to a decarbonised economy.

The challenge for us, in designing, developing and executing projects to offset these emissions is not just to provide clean energy. Because, at this point in the fight against climate change, being sustainable isn’t enough, we have to make things better.

To find out more about our projects or to inquire about partnering with us, please email climate@namenesolar.com