Premier Farnell Brings Clean and Renewable Lighting to Remote Tanzania

By News Release | August 03, 2013

Premier Farnell Brings Clean and Renewable Lighting to Remote Tanzania

Premier Farnell has embarked on an innovative initiative to provide solar-powered LED lighting to remote villages in Tanzania, Africa. Working in conjunction with the sustainability charity United Bank of Carbon (UBoC), the global electronics distributor has developed lighting kits, which provide an environmentally friendly, cost-saving alternative to the liquid fuel-based forms of lighting currently used by the local communities. Designed by Premier Farnell’s in-house technical team, the units have been optimized for ease of assembly, using its own brand parts along with components from some of its leading suppliers.

Premier Farnell is also providing funding to hire and train a local engineer to build, install, and maintain the kits so that the community can deal with technical problems without having to rely on outside help.

Four hundred kits have already been shipped out to the Tongwe community in remote western Tanzania near the Mahale Mountains National Park for use by schools, clinics, and forest rangers. Given the remoteness of the villages, Premier Farnell has received essential support from safari company Nomad Tanzania which has transported the kits by air to one of its camps only a short distance from Tongwe Land.

The project supports the company’s commitment to helping these communities replace the kerosene wick lamps currently used which produce significant emissions that are detrimental to the health of local people when inhaled and also contribute to climate change. The project is also part of a larger initiative by UBoC and its partners aimed at reducing deforestation in Tongweland – home to one of the world’s most important populations of Eastern long-haired chimpanzees.

“This is an ambitious and important project that Premier Farnell is ideally positioned to support and drive,” said Steven Webb, company secretary and general counsel at  Premier Farnell. “Solar-powered lighting is the ideal solution for remote communities with no access to grid electricity and can save them significant cost versus other forms of lighting that use fuels, which must be purchased and transported over long distances. We’ve already had a fantastic response from people who have used the sample kits – the local people have been shocked by how bright the LED bulb is and have wanted more kits for neighbors and friends.

“The project brings together our technical expertise, product range, drive for innovation, and approach to sustainability in a way that delivers benefits to all involved. By helping communities become more self-sufficient and encouraging the use of sustainable sources of energy, there are better prospects for their long-term viability and population migration to cities will be reduced.”

“Premier Farnell is bringing vital sustainable technology to 40,000 people looking after 10 million of the planet’s tropical trees. This is quite a project, especially in a remote corner of Tanzania with no roads, no cars, no power lines, no telephones, and hopelessly under-equipped dispensaries and schools. The company is clearly demonstrating the social leadership without which there can be no real business leadership. It is a privilege to be working with such a visionary company.”

Copyright (C) 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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