Meet the Team: Bernardo Lazo, Namene Solar Lights MD

Namene Solar delivers solar power without limit. We connect customers to affordable, quality solar lights and power with life-changing impacts.  Meet  the  team that  powers  our  climate business.  This  week,  we’re  spotlighting  our  Managing  Director,  Bernardo Lazo.

Bernardo leads Namene Solar’s lights team.

Bernardo, what are the values that drive you?

Integrity, honesty, and collaboration. Because only working together with a clear purpose and honest communication can we achieve the goals and mission we are set to reach.

What is the highlight of your role at Namene Solar?

To lead a team of multi-talented colleagues and partners in the development and implementation of effective and scalable solar lights distribution programmes in different countries where we operate. Of course, the main reward is seeing the impact and transformation that a little solar light can have in the hands of our customers: enabling children to study at night, walk or cycle back home safe at night. In short, bringing bright light into people’s lives.

What makes Namene Solar different to other companies?

That is enabling its customers to access solar energy on two fronts: commercial scale solar power generation and providing, in most cases, first time access to clean energy through our solar lights clients that live in areas with no access to electricity. For our solar lights team we are innovating not only in product design but also in targeting customers at the base of the energy pyramid through effective distribution light programmes leveraging climate finance, enabling households to step on the clean energy ladder.

What do you think is the biggest strength of the solar sector?

The pace at which technology has evolved and the range of scales at which it can operate, from watts to now near gigawatt scale. This, coupled with the huge solar resource available, can really accelerate energy access and the clean energy transition that the world needs using the right business models, policies and financing schemes.

And what are the challenges?

In the short-term, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought disruptions and delays in the supply chains and reduced the availability of some components for manufacture. In the medium-term, that governments are still subsidising fossil fuels and/or not incentivising sufficiently the transition for solar and other renewable energy technologies.

Do you have a motto or a favourite quote that inspires you?

“There is no planet B” this motto drives me at work and my personal decisions to connect, respect and take care of nature and try to rebalance what we take and what we give back.