SIERRA LEONE

Scaling solar energy access as a maintained public service across Sierra Leone.

A national Solar Home Systems programme delivered as a maintained energy service, powered by Moon ESIO™ infrastructure and run by a local operator.

Context

A national SHS programme delivered as a public service.

This national programme delivers solar energy to rural households as a maintained public service. It is run by a local operator, powered by Moon ESIO™ infrastructure and supported by public and institutional funding. The model is designed to stay accessible to rural households and to scale nationally.

Partner: Local operator
Programme: National SHS programme
Technology: Moon ESIO™ system, Moon IO™

Moon's Solution

Moon is the Moon ESIO™ infrastructure provider for the programme, supplying the full system to the local operator who runs the service. Moon also developed a last-mile payment module that lets field agents collect payments in low-connectivity areas.

The challenge

Many rural households in Sierra Leone are off-grid and cannot afford the upfront cost of solar equipment. A financially sustainable, large-scale SHS service model was still to be proven in the country. The programme was designed to change that, with a service suited to rural incomes and operations built to last.

What Moon deployed

Moon supplies the complete Moon ESIO™ infrastructure to the operator: eco-designed Solar Home Systems (Moon Energy System™) built for repairability and a long service life, Moon IO™ for field operations, territory zoning, customer management, remote monitoring and ticketing, and capacity building to train the operator's technician network. Moon also developed a payment layer for Sierra Leone's cash-based rural economy, enabling offline-compatible payment collection at the doorstep.

Results

The programme has connected households across the country, with a rapid installation pace and local jobs created. It shows that the SHS-as-a-Service model can operate at national scale.