New Town Bokosso up and running

It is with great pleasure to let you know that a couple of hours ago on 26.11.2016, we switched on the electricity in New Town Bokosso. According to Managing Director of SunErgy Cameroon, Mr. Mike Fohba it works perfect; people are jubilant and ready for a all night celebration! And thinking about it: what a way to start the advent season. Could it be more timely and perfect? Deep in the rainforest, seeing the light for the first time. More than symbolic!

With New Town Bokosso two villages are up and running. Work is under way on the third village: soon they will also see the light. And then, we will roll out, roll out ……… and roll out again, again and again!

The energy miracle is more than a dream; it`s a dream coming true. Eight hundred million people in Sub-Saharan Africa without access to electricity, there is no stopping now!

Nominated for 2017 Bloomberg New Energies Pioneers Award

“It is with great pleasure and humility we share the great and exciting news that SunErgy  has been nominated for the prestigious 2017 BLOOMBERG NEW ENERGIES PIONEERS AWARD” says Dr.Stein Skjorshammer, Managing Director of SunErgy.

Bloomberg writes about the award “Each year, we identify 10 game-changing companies globally in the field of clean energy technology and innovation. Winners are unveiled at the Future of Energy Summit, offering invaluable press attention and networking opportunities.
Winners are chosen by a panel of industry experts from, academia, corporations, utilities, finance and technology incubators.”

Dr. Skjorshammer continues, “We are sure that competition will be fierce. As we all know, there are plenty of clever and worthy guys out there. We are by no means the only ones. However, our innovative bundling of modern technologies and business model is quite unique. You shall never say never; we may be up for one more surprise.”

At the 2015 selection Bloomberg announced that “An independent panel of industry experts, assisted by our analysts and technology experts selected the 10 winners from a large number of applicants from around the world. Each candidate was assessed against three criteria: potential scale, innovation and momentum. Each New Energy Pioneer has demonstrated a combination of innovative technologies and business models, substantive progress in its activities, and the potential for global scale.”

“By the end of February we shall learn if we are among the lucky winners who will be invited to the Future of Energy Summit in April 2017 in New York at the United Nations to meet the General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and Mr. Bloomberg together with many other leading figures in the field on New Energies. We shall see. Time will tell. Right now, we are just savoring the big and unexpected surprise of having been nominated. What a joy! A total surprise”, Dr. Skjorshammer concludes.

11.11.2016

Mega with Microsoft and Orange

SunErgy starts a cooperation agreement with two giants in their respective fields, Microsoft and Orange.

“The initial contact and dialogue started in the middle of May”, Dr. Skjorshammer and Mr. Haugen say, who are co-founders and main shareholders of the company.

“We have worked all through the summer and are now ready to start’’ Skjorshammer says, continuing, “We are extremely pleased and honored for having the opportunity to work with Microsoft and Orange beginning in Cameroon. As SunErgy extends and moves into new markets and countries, we will continue developing the cooperation with Microsoft and Orange. Both companies are active in Africa, and Africa as an important new growth market.’’

He also stated, ‘’With Microsoft, we will focus in three areas: connectivity, energy and education. Connectivity will be related to the Microsoft knowledge and expertise on Cable TV and the Internet. The energy part includes taking full advantage of the Microsoft Cloud and the many opportunities it offers for data gathering and management. An additional important feature is that it allows us to access the system from anywhere in the world, Norway included. This provides full insight and complete control of all activities for the management and the owners. The educational part is the introduction and use of various educational programs developed by Microsoft for school children and adults.’’

The cooperation with Orange, the French mobile phone operator with more than one in ten Africans on their customer list, includes Mobile Phone Payments (Orange Money) and their messaging system. This will allow all SunErgy clients to be able to pay their bills, whether electricity, cable TV, Internet and micro loans, using their mobile phones which in turn will provide for maximum transparency and security of money transfers. All this together creates a state of the art record keeping of all money transfers and clients.

The cooperation with Microsoft and Orange, combined with previously established and ongoing cooperation with reputable, global equipment suppliers for solar electricity, cable TV and the Internet, is of uttermost importance. It is absolutely necessary as SunErgy seeks to expand its activities, which make it a leader in the field of off-grid village development in Africa and elsewhere. With more than 800 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone having no access to electricity, the market seems almost beyond imagination.

Skjorshammer enthusiastically says, ‘‘with the partnerships we have put together, SunErgy will be well prepared and equipped to play a major role in the development of the region and its people.’’

‘’Finally, we interpret this cooperation as stamp of approval of our achievements so far and that we seems to be on the right track. This is most motivating and encouraging,” Haugen and Skjorshammer conclude.

06.10.2016

The 5 million NOK milestone day

Friday, 04.09.2016, as a milestone day in the history of SunErgy as the company successfully completed a 5.000.000 Norwegian krone or a little more than half a million Euro share capital increase.

“This is how we planned from the very start” says the Mr. Haugen, chair of the board of directors and co-founder together with Dr. Skjorshammer, who serves as Managing Director.

“The idea from the very beginning has been to take in additional capital as we continued building” Mr. Haugen and Dr. Skjorshammer informs. “So far it has worked as planned. Existing shareholders contributed the money needed to finish the next villages. We interpret this as a vote of confidence in us, the worked carried out and the vision of SunErgy. Actually, we could have gotten more money, but this was what we needed this time”, they concluded, thanking all who support and take an active part in the future success of SunErgy.

Happy Birthday

On  August 15, 2016 we will celebrate the one-year anniversary of switching on electricity in the village of Bokosso. In addition this past year we provided the people with access to cable TV and the Internet.

Next two Solar containers released on record time

We are hard working on electrifying villages enabling people to escape poverty, moving into a better and brighter future.

Yesterday, June 2 2016, two solar containers were released from the harbor in Douala on record time. First time we shipped containers to Cameroon, we struggled for six months to have the containers released. This time it took only four weeks. Real progress.

One may look for the reasons are behind this “real progress”. It could be a combination of several factors. One is that things are improving and moving forward in Cameroon, which is great and encouraging for future developments. The second (and for sure), we have also learned a thing or two about shipping containers to Cameron and having them released without any major hick-ups or delays. Both important. Time for celebration! Soon more families will have access to electricity, moving out of darkness to a brighter and more prosperous future.

In the containers was also school materials donated by the French company Hamelin to be distributed to schoolchildren in the villages when school starts this fall.

03.06.2016

First Booklet “African Village Entrepreneurship!” finalized

We have just finished the booklet “African Village Entrepreneurship”. We got the ten first copies from the printer last week. As far as we know, this is the first booklet of its kind written for people who live in far off villages, such as deep in the rainforest of Cameroon.

We will use the book at the various entrepreneurship training seminars we arrange and also give to people who want to start their own business. That it will bring inspiration and knowledge for a successful start up.

This is big for us, but it will hopefully prove even bigger for the people for whom it is intended.

03.05.2016

Cameroon Painter Max Lyonga

24.04.2016 – Max Lyonga is a world recognized painter, living in Buea, Cameroon and a strong supporter of the SunErgy project. “Max is an artist paining with his heart “says Dr. Skjorshammer, who is a good friend of Max Lyonga. “We actually refer to each other as brothers. Max has a clear message with strong love concern for the destitute. His philosophy is to create hope and love, pointing to a better and brighter future. Max is known far beyond Africa.

The “Norwegian group” visited Mr. Lyonga when in Cameroon, where they learned more about his painting and the history behind each of them.

2.500 Dreams coming true in Kotho

On 17.03.2016 the next solar containers were loaded unto a ship destined for Cameroon and the village of Kotho. In a few months more than 500 families or 2.500 people, plus schools, health centers and businesses will see an end to their nightmare, and having electricity, cable TV and Internet.

Finally they have access to the outside world and a real opportunity to escape poverty, moving into a brighter and better future.

Years of darkness ending! All for less than one Cameroonian beer per day! Light triumphing darkness!

It can not get much better than this?!

In Sub-Saharan Africa there are 800 million more dreams waiting to come true. We are hard at work.