Mousa is one of a class of entrepreneurs targeting Egypt’s growing off-grid, under-electrified or environmentally conscious market for solar energy. The businesses range from Mousa’s social venture to a company named Sun City that wants to re-engineer buildings’ plumbing to better work with solar water heaters, to the granddaddy of Egyptian solar energy startups, five-year-old KarmSolar.
Sun shines on Egypt’s solar startups
By Rachel Williamson
Sarah Mousa eyed the small boys, vigorously hacking at each other with sticks in the narrow backstreet of Cairo’s Al Darb Al Ahmar slum, and apologized for the delay as her two employees put together a display model of a portable rooftop solar water heater.
Mousa had tried leaving an exhibition model outside her rented Aga Khan Foundation workshop, to show local residents what her socially-minded startup Shamsina was building: cheap, functional solar water heaters designed for the very poor.
Unfortunately, the local kids – perhaps even the ones engaging in the mock sword fight in front of us – decided it would make a better target for a stone-throwing competition.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at Wamba | Sun shines on Egypt’s solar startups
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