Building the Direct Solar Economy

Time to check on our journey!

Step one was to test and try our ideas about a direct solar economy, meaning how can the use of direct sunshine impact the economy positively. It’s a multi-factorial impact:

• Environment preservation (no more wood burning)
• Health protection (no more breathing in of lethal dark particles)
• Women empowerment (no more hours gathering wood and watching the fire)
• Wealth creation (a powerful and steady energy source can power business)

At that point we praise solar cooking and we wanted to go a bit beyond that, to bring the spirit into commercial activities such as baking for example. So at first, we worked in Kenya in partnership with Weconomy, World Vision Finland and World Vision Kenya. This was in 2016 and we have documented the very first and successful production of solar bread and solar peanut butter.

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In 2017-2018, a strategic partnership with Autodesk and Wärtislä with World Vision and Global Resources Alliance allowed us to train and empower 54 entrepreneurs in 9 projects in Kenya and Tanzania. We observed, we documented what works, what doesn’t.

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This lead to the opening of a very nice solar bakery led by women in Tanzania.

These projects created with our humanitarian partners and clients have set the basis of a direct solar economy where artisans and entrepreneurs adapted their work to the availability of the solar energy source. And that’s not a small thing to do as you can imagine.

In France, the successful solar bakery Neoloco started in 2020, has attracted lots of attention and is invited to share at many universities about their specific solar work organization. This great example is inspiring to many.

Fast forward to 2025, the Solar Fire Bakery created in 2022 in Kisumu, Kenya, was awarded the Prix Afrique Excellence. It is Africa’s first solar bakery, and it’s powered by a Lytefire.

"The second prize awarded to the solar bakery recognizes a project requiring very little capital, using updated techniques for baking bread through concentrated solar power. It meets the requirements of sustainability and accessibility, is highly replicable across all regions, and is a reliable way to stabilize and retain local populations, as the bakery serves as a hub of social activity."

That same year, another strategic partnership with the Jansen PrimeSteps Foundation, allowed us to focus more on incubation while supporting the start of several solar bakeries.

These are the seeds of an emerging direct solar economy that is now starting everywhere, with users from Kenya to France, from Uganda to Senegal.