Solar Kyenturegye Cooperative

Environmental

The switch to solar energy will allow the cooperative to run on clean energy only, eliminating the diesel consumption – a reduction of 3,800 liters a year that will avoid the emission of 10.2 tons of CO2/year.

Social

An estimated 34% of Uganda’s population lived under the poverty threshold of US$1.90 a day, in 2016. Nevertheless, it is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. This project will improve the living conditions of the population served by the cooperative.

• Better working conditions: by increasing the lighting around the plant with external safety lights, the cooperative members will have longer operation hours especially loading milk to the buyers’ trucks during late evenings. The installer has already installed 2 street lighting modules at the facility at no extra cost.
• Greater financial autonomy: with one farm having about 50 farmers, it is estimated that 3,500 small farmers will be positively affected by this project. The current income earned by milk producers is not enough to give them financial autonomy, which will be obtained with a better energy supply that will decrease the cooperative's costs.
• More gender equality: the cooperative has 12 women, two of them in the leadership of the council who will benefit from training. 
• Job generation: by building reliable and sustainable infrastructure, this project will motivate more farmers to take up lucrative dairy businesses in Uganda, hence creating direct and indirect jobs (estimates point to over 1,200). Technical jobs will also be created in the solar sector to trained technicians and local people who will be trained to operate and maintain the solar plants.
• Estimates point to 10% of all milk production in Kyenturegye being wasted due to lack of timely cooling. Solar cooling technologies can provide consistent cold storage for areas with no or unreliable energy access, offering significant impact potential.

Environmental

The switch to solar energy will allow the cooperative to run on clean energy only, eliminating the diesel consumption – a reduction of 3,800 liters a year that will avoid the emission of 10.2 tons of CO2/year.

Social

An estimated 34% of Uganda’s population lived under the poverty threshold of US$1.90 a day, in 2016. Nevertheless, it is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. This project will improve the living conditions of the population served by the cooperative.

• Better working conditions: by increasing the lighting around the plant with external safety lights, the cooperative members will have longer operation hours especially loading milk to the buyers’ trucks during late evenings. The installer has already installed 2 street lighting modules at the facility at no extra cost.
• Greater financial autonomy: with one farm having about 50 farmers, it is estimated that 3,500 small farmers will be positively affected by this project. The current income earned by milk producers is not enough to give them financial autonomy, which will be obtained with a better energy supply that will decrease the cooperative's costs.
• More gender equality: the cooperative has 12 women, two of them in the leadership of the council who will benefit from training. 
• Job generation: by building reliable and sustainable infrastructure, this project will motivate more farmers to take up lucrative dairy businesses in Uganda, hence creating direct and indirect jobs (estimates point to over 1,200). Technical jobs will also be created in the solar sector to trained technicians and local people who will be trained to operate and maintain the solar plants.
• Estimates point to 10% of all milk production in Kyenturegye being wasted due to lack of timely cooling. Solar cooling technologies can provide consistent cold storage for areas with no or unreliable energy access, offering significant impact potential.