BRIGHT tell us about delivering clean energy solutions to people living off the grid

 

On a company retreat in a mountain cabin in the winter of 2007, Oslo-based design office K8 adopts a manifest to “go green and make a difference”, which would end up being the start of BRIGHT’s history. Thousands of hours of field research and product development later, that lofty ambition led to a remarkable triumph of smart and innovative design in the form of rugged solar lamps that are impacting millions of lives.

Bright’s main focus has been and still is delivering clean energy solutions to people living off the grid or with bad grid. A lot of time and energy goes on working with the SDGs, using the tool Future Fit benchmarking.

Bright does a lot of business in Africa where there is a lot of other solar companies operating and the customers have a lower purchasing power than in other areas. Africa is a continent with big distances and an unstable infrastructure. This is challenging when it comes to banking, logistics and distribution. The positive side is that solar power is an established category and people are much more aware that solar energy is an alternative than what we see in Norway.

 

 

A key success factor is to be able to effectively cooperate across industries and with other sectors. When everybody has economic value added in the cooperation and the solution, this provides added value to the end user.

Bright collaborates with Innovation Norway and NCA (Norwegian Church Aid) in Burundi and Somalia and helps men and women to become entrepreneurs. Here they learn about solar power and solar products in order to sell or lease solar products to others, creating an economic growth for them and their families as well as the community as a whole.

Bright has delivered 2.5 million products to UNHCR since 2014. After delivering 2.5 million units to UNHCR Bright has documented results on quality, production, and deliverance.

This shows that the Nordics can play a major role combining companies from different industries, finance and government in programs for the Offgrid markets. The Nordics have a long history of cooperation where the foundation is based on trust and openness – which is essential for all successful cooperation.

 

The Financial Inclusion Summit takes place in Oslo, Norway, on 28 March 2019. To find out more or request an invitation, visit: https://financial-inclusion.com/#register

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