OpenSolar Commits 1 Percent of its Global Revenue to Address Energy Poverty

SYDNEY– 6 Jan 2023 – OpenSolar Pty Ltd, a software company focused on empowering solar installers with the world’s most accurate and entirely free solar design and sales platform, today announced their ongoing commitment to donate 1% of their annual revenue to fund solar energy projects which empower vulnerable communities with little or no access to reliable power so they may leapfrog fossil fuels and grow their economies while protecting unique ecosystems.

This 1% Commitment is in partnership with Empowered by Light, a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of solar powered energy worldwide in communities most severely impacted by climate change, energy poverty, and habitat loss. Each year, the two organizations will jointly select specific projects to complete, based on OpenSolar’s conviction that nobody should be left behind as the world transitions away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.  Empowered by Light’s global footprint ensures that the two organizations will have multiple potential projects to select from.

The first projects that OpenSolar’s donation will support are in two very poor and remote communities in southern Zambia near the border with Mozambique. Both Undi and Chutika have no access to electricity which profoundly limits people’s quality of life.  Community members currently collect and haul water from the river in order to irrigate their crops and use water for drinking, cooking and sanitation. They must walk anywhere from 200 to 600 feet to and from the river several times per day in order to collect enough water to successfully grow vegetables and a variety of other crops. With each trip, villagers risk fatal encounters with elephants, crocodiles and hippos.  

OpenSolar’s 1% Commitment has funded the installation of solar powered water pumps, storage and irrigation systems in both communities, designed to reduce the time community members spend collecting and transporting water, improve safety, boost economic development, and increase health and sanitation.

“OpenSolar is fast becoming the global choice for solar installers to design, sell and install clean technologies,” said Andrew Birch, Co-founder and CEO of OpenSolar. “It is therefore incumbent upon us to ensure that some of this success is shared with vulnerable communities whose lives will be forever improved with the addition of those same technologies.  We are grateful to our global community of solar professionals for their support - every design, proposal and sale on our platform makes it possible for us to take steps such as this.”

Moira Hanes, Co-founder and Executive Director of Empowered by Light said, “We are honored and thrilled that OpenSolar selected us as the recipient of their 1% commitment .  They are truly a mission-driven organization whose belief in energy access for all is authentic and inspiring, and their commitment will allow Empowered by Light to grow its impact around the world.”

The community members described how they expect to see a substantial improvement in quality of life and personal safety thanks to the installation of these solar-powered systems in this video.