The solar kiosks powering Lesotho’s rural communities
Solar-powered charging kiosks are providing electricity in the southern African country, even on cloudy days.
When Kanono Thabane stayed in the Thaba-Tseka district of Lesotho back in 2014, he and his colleagues struggled to charge their phones and laptops because of a lack of electricity.
For two weeks, the businesspeople relied on a dilapidated solar panel to power their devices.
“We were charging our gadgets at this guy’s house, and we were not charging from the battery, but directly from the sun through his inverter,” Thabane told China Dialogue. “After that, the laptop developed battery problems and I decided to devise a long-term solution.”
For Thabane, an engineer, that solution was solar-charging booths. Through his company Arbitrage PTY he set up six such booths in Thaba-Tseka district and sold them to rural entrepreneurs.
