Guatemala: Low-cost solar lighting for rural communities

In Guatemala, 1.6 million people live without access to electricity, especially in rural areas and continue to use candles, oil lamps and other diesel generators. The Guatemalan start-up Kingo Energy has set out to provide a response by developing clean and economical solutions for access to energy. It offers a kit, comprising solar panels and a box with a battery to store the electricity produced during the day. Users purchase their consumption per unit of time (hour, day, week or month), like with a mobile phone top-up. Proparco has allocated in 2016 a USD 1.7m loan convertible into shares in order to support the dissemination of clean and economical solution for energy access