

Providing affordable long-lasting solar systems for Malawian villagers
Energy
for
Empowerment

"Solar Ku Midzi" means "Solar to the Villages" in Chichewa, the official Bantu language of Malawi. This aptly describes our mission to provide villagers with low-cost, high-quality solar products crafted for sustainable and robust use. We aim to generate economic benefit for our customers in partnership with women-led shops across Malawi that sell our affordable cookers, pumps, batteries and lighting systems.
Our Mission
We currently import, assemble, distribute and service four key solar products: lights, irrigation pumps, e-cookers and batteries. These products are sold through a network of independent women’s solar shops in villages throughout Malawi.
Click on each product to learn more.

Our Products
Our Impact
Our solar products are distributed through a network of twenty women-led village solar shops located throughout Malawi.
In the last two years we have distributed:
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over two thousand solar light + cell phone charger systems,
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almost two thousand solar irrigation pumps with hoses and solar panels
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almost two thousand solar electric pressure cookers with voltage converter and solar panels
Products are sold at 30% to 90% of total cost, supporting low-income Malawians while ensuring true need and high usage rates.
Recent News and Milestones
3 June 2025: Robert Van Buskirk visits MECS at University of Loughborough to give them an update on the latest solar cooker efforts: Bridging the Affordabilty Gap: Enabling Rural Malawian Ownership of Off-Grid Solar-Electric Cooking Systems.
3-7 June 2025: .Affordable Solar for Villagers displays the solar cookers, pumps, 12V battery and lights at the Renewable Energy Industries Association of Malawi (REAMA) exhibit at Chichiri Mall in Blantyre. Fortuitously the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) was in the next booth, so we also made good connections with them.
17 May 2025: The 20 ft shipping container holding 400 pumps, 400 hoses, spare parts to repair 1,000 pumps, along with many voltage converters for the cookers, and repair parts for the solar cargo trikes.
27 November 2024: Robert Van Buskirk and Skyler Selvin give a terrific webinar about the Forever Battery / Batire Lokhalitsa organized by their allies at Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS): Making a 10-Year Lifetime Solar eCooking Battery for Rural Africa
26 November 2024: Rachel, Hope, Montfort and the Kasungu women's solar shop generate great interest when they cook nsima in their solar electric pressure cookers at the World Food Program's Clean Cooking Demonstration.
23 November 2024: A supporter encouraged Robert Van Buskirk to write an executive summary of the "big picture" problem and solution we're working on. The resulting 3 page clearly and brilliantly written precis is here: How to Help Solve Climate Change and African Poverty at the Same Time in the Most Cost-Effective Way Possible.
30 October 2024: Solar4Africa and Kachione LLC envision Phase II: Refining an Affordable Solar Home System with eCooking for Rural Malawi (draft report submitted to MECS, Modern Energy Cooking Services)
16 October 2024: Affordable Solar for Villagers (Solar Ku Midzi) showcases Solar Ku Midzi products at NGO Day at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre.
23 September 2024: Long time funder Jane Spencer, program manager for Modern Energy Cooking Systems (MECS), reflects on the past five years of Kachione LLC’s and Robert Van Buskirks's work in Malawi Jane's Blog
mid-September 2024: Donations to solar4africa.org exceeds $127,000 in less than a year. All these donations came from individual donors, and almost all went to directly purchasing solar equipment in China and shipping it to Kachione's Blantyre workshop for distribution across Malawi. The products are sold to villagers at subsidized prices while providing livelihoods to the village women staffing the solar shops.
5 September 2024: Dr. Robert Van Buskirk's presentation at the 5th International Conference on Solar Technologies to Improve Energy Access can be viewed here:
Solar Off-Grid Clean Cooking = Solar Access in Malawi
28 August 2024: The team loads a big truck with 568 large 370W solar panels and 157 solar electric pressure cookers for delivery to the village shops.
27 August 2024: The Honorable Dr. Owen Chomanika, Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, visits the Blantyre Workshop.
24 August 2024: Affordable Solar for Villagers Board of Directors holds its first meeting as a certified NGO.
22 July 2024: Affordable Solar for Villagers is certified as a local Malawi NGO.
June - August 2024: Village interview teams gather data with the help of student interns.
May 2024: Analysis of the January 2024 solar pump interviews of 25 village farmers shows that a $1 donation creates $16 of dry season harvest income for villagers. And this doesn't even include food grown for home consumption! Our latest solar pump report can be found here.
March 2024: Rachel, Laurence and Robert's eCooking presentation in Lilongwe.