Opinion: The challenges of putting solar to work

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Solar power has moved beyond just lighting homes, evolving to power tools that boost productivity in off-grid communities, writes Tamara Mahoney. We now have solar-powered appliances, such as mills, that reduce manual labour and replace diesel engines. However, the industry's growth is hampered by a lack of long-term investment.

• Tamara works as a project manager at GOGLA, the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. 

• “If productive use companies were able to be financed like infrastructure rather than consumer goods, private companies could scale, customers could afford to pay for products, and impact could accelerate,” writes Ms Tamara.

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By Tamara Mahoney 

From the earliest days of off-grid solar electrification, it was clear that solar could do more than light up homes.

As kerosene lamps were replaced with LED bulbs, shops stayed open longer and expanded offerings. New business ventures began to emerge almost immediately after a solar home system was installed, as entrepreneurs found new ways to put their electricity to work. Solar off-grid companies learned quickly that customers weren’t just asking for watts, they were asking for tools. 

Radios, phones, barber clippers, and small appliances adapted to solar power fast. Soon, the question shifted to bigger appliances: could solar replace diesel mills or the manual labour of pounding maize and other grains?

Manual processing – almost always done by women – takes hours every day. Diesel mills, when available, are expensive, long-term and polluting. Milling isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity that needs to happen one way or another – and solar was poised to solve some of the pain points that off-grid communities had been facing. 

The Gap Is Time, Labour, and Basic Mechanisation

Enter the manufacturers. More than two decades ago, Greg Denn was living in Papua New Guinea. He’d spent years in disaster response, running infrastructure projects, deeply embedded in local life. One day, he was approached with an ask that sparked his curiosity: a Canadian economist who was working under a World Bank program asked him to build an oil press. Something small, robust, and useful in a remote village. The ask came from a need; this particular oil was exceptional at keeping pigs out of crop fields, but it took an incredibly long time to make.

Greg wasn’t a product designer, but he understood the constraints and knew how to get things built in low-resource settings. He sketched something practical, had it prototyped, and it worked. That first press quietly solved a gap that everyone saw, but no one was filling.

That was the blueprint for what would become Productive Solar Solutions (PSS): notice the gap, build something that works, evolve, stay current, move on to the next problem, repeat.

“People need food. That’s not a luxury,” Greg said. “We started solar milling before it was even called ‘productive use.’ We just saw a gap.” Stewart Craine, Productive Solar Solutions CFO, adds “You don’t need a 10-kilowatt system to run a rice mill. You need a smart system and design discipline.”

This pragmatic, efficient mindset drives agro-processing innovation today. Grains and flour from crops like rice, cassava and maize are dietary staples worldwide. To build climate-resilient food systems and inclusive rural economies, private sector companies began manufacturing appliances that power real work.

From Engineering in Asia to Listening in Africa

The impact stories from their work are simple but profound: A farmer in Indonesia no longer burns diesel and keeps more of her profits. A family in Kenya processes 10 times more maize in a fraction of the time. In Papua New Guinea, after introducing solar milling, a quiet but powerful shift: less domestic violence. In Vanuatu, manual labour grating cassava by hand was reduced, allowing women more time, less stress, and more autonomy. Local food systems become more resilient.

“You don’t plan for some of these impacts,” Stewart said. “But it’s real.”

During the pandemic, Greg’s extended stay in Kenya revealed a familiar opportunity. “Africa’s where people come and say, ‘Here’s the problem, can you build something that works?’ It’s about listening.” The solar-powered agro-processing industry was developing quickly, and PSS planned to take on Africa by building what was needed – “very, very productive use of renewable energy” processing machines for every major staple crop that could work with all solar inverter systems.  

Is manufacturing of solar agro-processing a commercially viable undertaking? It’s getting there. PSS’s transparent data shows fast-growing orders—about $15k–20k per month in July 2025, with $5k profit. First-half 2025 sales doubled 2024’s total, and demand from Nigeria is strong.

But to scale, PSS needs significantly more orders and capital to produce $1 million in product annually. When they get there, that’s when they will claim commercial success.

The Technology Is Working. The Financing Isn’t.

And here’s where the story gets stuck.

In off-grid solar, lighting still dominates the narrative – how many lanterns were sold, how many rooms are lit. But using energy productively is what happens almost immediately after the light bulbs are on. “Solar energy isn’t just about turning on a bulb,” Stewart said. “It’s about powering the work people already do.”

Solar energy has been at work for quite some time. But the financing? Not even close.

PURE companies are often pushed into one or two-year loans with sky-high interest rates. “This (machine) is a 10-year asset,” Greg said. “But we’re asking poor communities to finance it like it’s a phone.” So what’s the solution? “Investors should steer away from seeking short-term wins,” Stewart replies. “We need patient capital. The kind we used to build power grids 90 years ago.”

It shouldn’t be controversial to point out: subsidies get spent, but loans can be recycled. If productive use companies were able to be financed like infrastructure rather than consumer goods, private companies could scale, customers could afford to pay for products, and impact could accelerate. The timelines are just as critical as the terms – delays of 12 to 18 months between investment conversations and cash landing in accounts are enough to stall even the most promising companies. This is what is holding progress back.

For a scale-up company, it’s unfortunately normal to wait years for a promised or contracted investment to arrive, which is a very real frustration throughout the industry. But growth happens when companies can reliably pay their teams, suppliers, and factories to make and ship the products that people not only want, but need. Products that make a huge impact on people’s lives, that lead to economic development and progress. Products that put solar to work.

What a scale-up really looks like

While the story could stay stuck here, the off-grid sector stubbornly refuses to stop moving ahead. Between juggling their time in seeking investment, Productive Solar Solutions is scaling their company through cooperation. One key agreement is with Sun King, which has over 50,000 solar sales agents across Africa. PSS’s equipment – mills, cookstoves, and more – are able to plug into the solar inverter and 24V DC portable systems already being sold through Sun King’s network, no grid required.

It’s not a top-down rollout. It’s an embedded, adaptive distribution. Similar arrangements are in place with companies like Omnivoltaic and Inclusive Energy. There are plenty of other deals like this throughout the off-grid sector, where manufacturers and distributors work together because customers are asking for more. Energy from a light bulb does change lives – but appliances and machines that work on the energy provided by solar will change societies.

So while scale up companies must be working through cooperative solutions and partnerships, investment is still very essential, which Greg explains plainly.

“Investment into the company would be really useful to us, but we are always asked to first show really significant traction. For example, sell one thousand machines in the next six months, and then they [the investor] will come in with financing. But we need the investment first to get out there and to actually sell those first 1,000 systems.”

Everything is ready to scale – except the capital.

This is fixable

There’s no perfect business model yet, but the path is becoming clearer, and partnerships are key. “We see it as smarter to avoid B2C lending risk,” Stewart says. “Others are better at lending and collections – we focus on cash sales.” If you’re an investor looking at the PURE space, this is what can be done right now:

• Finance long-term assets like infrastructure, not phones. Five-to ten-year terms, low interest.

• Fund scale, not just pilots. Working capital is what unlocks impact.

• Support smart partnerships. Let tech builders build; let financial experts lend.

• Move before it’s de-risked. Waiting for 100% proof means missing the window.

• Close deals faster. Signed agreements should mean capital in accounts without delays.

What PURE companies need is the capital to build, supply, and service the machines that make productivity possible. “We’re in the solar energy century now,” Stewart said. “There is consensus that solar is now the cheapest form of electricity mankind has ever created. So why aren’t we using it more to work?”

In a field that can be dominated by carefully curated impact stories, this is a story-in-progress and a turning point. With the right capital, these machines – and the livelihoods they support – can scale rapidly. The future of solar is productive. Let’s fund it like we mean it.

The article was first published on GOGLA’s website and is republished with permission.