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SOLAR BAKING NEWS FROM UGANDA
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There are 2 types of journeys that people can take with a Lytefire solar oven.
1. Entrepreneurial
2. Community Based Organization (CBO)
After Joan Arwa last time sharing about her Solar Fire Bakery in Kenya, today it’s another team presenting what they do with their Lytefire in East Africa.
The project in Nebbi, Uganda, started in 2021 with the support of Plan International Finland - Plan International Suomi and Plan International Uganda.
Back then, a group of young adults received a Lytefire solar oven old generation (without the charcoal drawer) and a long training to launch a professional solar baking activity adapted to their environment. Since then, they never stopped and they now generated some profit.
CBO’s organization is sometimes great to start and get a group to make the best use of their solar oven. At Lytefire, we are all about the productive use of solar energy and now this team would like to start their entrepreneurial adventure.
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Fresh news from the team running the Nebbi Smart Up Solar Bakery in Uganda:
Benedict Bithola – Oyella Janety – Prudence Vasta & Benedict
How is Nebbi Smart Up bakery doing since its creation in 2022?
We have been able to sustain our livelihood through baking and we created a platform for many youths within the region who are employed in selling our baked products like cookies, cakes, buns, donuts, bread, mandazi and others to be engaged instead of turning into criminal activities, robbery, drug abuse among others.
Our bakery has emerged as one of the best bakeries in producing quality products in the region and offering quality training services in baking skills.
The bakery has also become a centre of training for youths who have passion for baking and this has enabled them to gain more skills in baking and marketing.
There is steady growth and profit has been realised due to purchase of new equipment like cake stands, baking tins, buckets, and the ongoing construction of a new kitchen.
We are able to repair broken mirrors, buying of cake mixture with a larger capacity to accommodate bigger orders.
Our current goal is to open up our own outlet in town away from the bakery so as to limit congestion when buyers come and we hope to achieve this after completing the construction of the kitchen.
Construction of the new kitchen next to the solar oven
Joining the Lytefire project was a special moment and the best decision we have ever made because in most countries in Africa, especially in Uganda in which our bakery is located, we are educated to look for jobs as job seekers not as job creators but this bakery group with the Lytefire solar oven and training has given us an opportunity to create jobs.
Written by Mr Benedict Bithola, Manager Smart up Solar Bakery Nebbi Uganda.
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We have acknowledged growth this year because we sat down and realized that our niche market was cake buyers and so we invested a lot towards that in terms of machinery, baking tins, cake stand, refrigerator, commercial cake mixture, human resources, repairing of broken items, replacement of spoilt ones like the mirrors, the cake mixture and to add on that we enrolled in a one month training on cake decoration to perfect our style.
Prudence Vasta
We have made it as the only bakery dealing in large scale cake production and we are recognized in the West Nile region. The district has recognized us with awards of certificate of appreciation for our Outstanding contribution in transforming the lives of the young people. They pledge to support us especially in marketing and access to government loans and grants to support the youth.
Written by Miss Prudence Vasta, Manager Smart up Solar Bakery Nebbi Uganda.
More pictures from Nebbi Smart Up Solar Bakery:
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This newsletter is meant to inform you about the spread of Lytefire solar thermal solutions and the educational programs. If you do not wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe below. Your newsletter data is not used for anything other than receiving this newsletter. See our Privacy Policy and General Terms © 2025 Lytefire Ltd - Crazy Town - Rautatienkatu 21 C, 33100 Tampere - Finland.
A solar bakery in Kenya is growing
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There is great news for solar baking in Africa from Joan Arwa. Today’s post comes directly from her. Spread the word in your African network!
How is the Solar Fire Bakery doing today since its creation in 2022?
New equipment and opening a 2nd shop means growth towards the right direction. In the past year, me at Solar Fire Bakery Kisumu have realized that there is money in the bakery business and I just need to invest more into pushing for more growth (by buying machines like mixer, bread proofer, dough sheeter, bread slicer). Growth that brings smiles and joy to more families, growth that shows love through the products that we bake for our community.
Sheryl at the Solar Fire Bakery
Sheryl and two more bakers Melda and Cynthia wake up early daily to come and work here with me at Solar Fire Bakery.
We are happy to serve our clients daily with the same focus and enthusiasm. Because there is lots of demand, I decided to open my new shop in Harambee market in Kisumu county. A shop we use as an outlet and pickpoint of our products by our sales team of 2 (hoping to grow to 5 in the near future).
My new shop!
In this outlet the most preferred products are sweet bread, scones, biscuits, brown whole-wheat bread, peanut butter and fried pastries called mandazi.
And it’s me. Happy and a bit tired also as being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy!
Joining the Lytefire group was one of the best decisions I ever made. Because I got to start my own business, grow it and find satisfaction in what I do while creating jobs and educating the different people from my community, and how important the environment needs to be taken care of by protecting the trees and good air. This happens because whenever they see my Lytefire oven they ask the question: how does this machine operate with just solar light?
Being a solar baker comes with many challenges, as an entrepreneur, as a woman, and as a pioneer. Believing in what you do, patience and staying focused on solving each entrepreneurial problem one by one can also be fun once you are in the process.
People love the taste of our baked goods and this makes us happy.
"Joan’s bread is better than any other. So yummy! Her solar bakery is the best bakery in town."
– Sylvia Atayi, Elgeyo Marakwet Cluster Manager, World Vision Kenya.
I hope that many others will be inspired to do the same and create their local solar activity.
All pictures © Joan Arwa, 2025
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This newsletter is meant to inform you about the spread of Lytefire solar thermal solutions and the educational programs. If you do not wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe below. Your newsletter data is not used for anything other than receiving this newsletter. See our Privacy Policy and General Terms © 2024 Lytefire Ltd - Crazy Town - Rautatienkatu 21 C, 33100 Tampere - Finland.
If not now, when?
This is a key newsletter for us and for all the Lytefire users.
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Lytefire’s impact is mind blowing!
The last time we had time to analyze the collected data was in 2016-2017, when we started our first big projects in East Africa. Collecting data in the contexts where Lytefire is needed is hard but thanks to super motivated users from different countries, we have finally been able to patiently understand better how our users are actually using the great power of their Lytefire.
Recently, we have done our homework again to adjust and double check the past assumptions.
And it turns out that our impact is much much more than we initially estimated!
When someone decides to stop using firewood, it is not 5 tons per year of CO2 that are prevented from being emitted, as we first thought. It is 17 tons! This means 72 trees that do not need to be cut down that year.
In recent years, Lytefire’s design also changed and the oven now has an integrated charcoal burner to be used when the sky isn’t clear.
Combined with the community cooker, the solar oven is now also a great solution for canteens.
With this upgraded Impact Calculator, I created a tool to calculate and visualize the groundbreaking impact of Lytefire. It shows what we’ve always known: Lytefire is a real game-changer in the impact field. Each unit installed helps reduce the use of firewood, charcoal and polluting fires, and while this in turn saves trees and forests from being cut-down, this also goes hand-in-hand with the productive use of solar thermal energy.
What drives the impact is not the good intentions; it’s the actual number of fresh baguettes coming out of the oven, and the number of meals saved without spending a dime on firewood.
Whether you’re interested in solar cooking meals for a school, reducing your carbon footprint or preserving forests, the impact calculator allows you to see the impact of one or many Lytefires.
The default parameters were set based on our decades long experience installing Lytefire in East and West Africa, where most units are installed at schools, in communities and as the driving force of solar bakeries as part of our educational training. For example, solar baker Joan Arwa in Kisumu, Kenya, is baking about 30-40kg of bread per day.
A big thank you to Solar Fire Bakery in Kenya and to Nebbi Smart Up Solar Bakery in Uganda for helping us to make great case studies.
As we are also shipping Lytefires by the containers, we’ve included several options ranging from 1 Lytefire alone, up to 15 Lytefire containers. Pick an option and see the impact grow!
The tool is geared towards project developers, NGOs, project sponsors and people interested in understanding just how much impact Lytefire has, and how much impact they could bring to a given project.
All the assumptions are directly documented in the calculator and ready to be adjusted. You can for example adjust the parameters regarding the type of forest you want to protect, and based on the local climate adjust the number of solar baking days (and remember that, Lytefire PRO Oven is now also hybrid and can be operated also on rainy days).
Interested to discuss what Lytefire can do for your organization?
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This newsletter is meant to inform you about the spread of Lytefire solar thermal solutions and the educational programs. If you do not wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe below. Your newsletter data is not used for anything other than receiving this newsletter. See our Privacy Policy and General Terms © 2024 Lytefire Ltd - Crazy Town - Rautatienkatu 21 C, 33100 Tampere - Finland.
If not now, when?
Spring is here, even in Finland, and we hope the good energy is giving everyone strength and courage to keep on with the good work!
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New project with UNDP
We are very happy to share with you that we are starting a very exciting project with UNDP in Africa.
“UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so countries can sustain progress. As the UN’s development agency, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
One location is run in partnership with UNHCR and offers training with sewing machines and a computer room. A group of 60 women is running the kitchen and almost 400 farmers are involved in this project. All together, they are creating strategies to enhance local production and reinforce food security by incorporating maize and cassava flour to the recipes. Another location is more focused on fisheries and the school that is there with almost 2000 students. There used to be a bakery in that school but the electric oven broke down, then they used generators, and then everything stopped again, so the idea here is to restart the production with their Lytefire solar oven. The third location is very remote and poor, everything is missing, including clean water so here we are exploring what best use can be made of this powerful “solar fire” brought by Lytefire.
No picture of the solar ovens yet because this is our first cooperation with a UN agency and we’re just starting. It is a pilot and we hope to be able to continue the collaboration in future and equip more and more people.
It’s not the first time we won a bid but believe us friends, this one was very special to us and we feel proud and happy because it’s been years that we wanted to initiate cooperation with this great agency.
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Undersolar: Low-tech engineering projects for concentrated solar thermal power
Two groups of students are planning to build and study solar oven prototypes on the campuses of the École des Mines Sofia Antipolis and L’Industreet. This cool project was made possible thanks to Professor Philippe Blanc and Timothée Boisseau, a former intern with us in Finland and, more importantly, a brilliant doctoral research engineer. We are always open to creative projects in the field of education and Urs is leading this project. We look forward to sharing the students’ progress in an upcoming newsletter.
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Inspiration
Emilie is a true enthusiast of DIY and low-tech. She created her channel, Vivre Low-Tech, where she has already shared her conversations with pioneer Lytefire users: Hélie, the solar microbrewery, Du Soleil et des Graines with their delicious concoctions, and the training sessions offered by Grégoire Pourcelot with LTL in Grenoble. Thank you, Emilie, Grégoire, Romain, Manu, and Lydiane, and all those who are trying to get local solar crafts off the ground!
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Cette Lytefire Deluxe est en vente dans l’Ouest de la France :
Lytefire Deluxe produite par CPM Industrie © Michel Mouillé
Pour des raisons personnelles, notre ami Michel Mouillé, de l’association Idée d’en Faire, doit vendre sa Lytefire Deluxe sur remorque avec tambour de torréfaction. L’équipement a été entretenu avec soin depuis 2022. Michel est basé dans l’Ouest de la France. Si vous êtes intéressé, n’hésitez pas à le contacter ici.
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This newsletter is meant to inform you about the spread of Lytefire solar thermal solutions and the educational programs. If you do not wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe below. Your newsletter data is not used for anything other than receiving this newsletter. See our Privacy Policy and General Terms © 2024 Lytefire Ltd - Crazy Town - Rautatienkatu 21 C, 33100 Tampere - Finland.
