For Every $1 Invested, Solar Sister Generates $15.82 in Economic Value
by Sinead Maharey, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Solar Sister
Solar Sister’s mission is to economically empower women and eradicate energy poverty through entrepreneurship. Solar Sister entrepreneurs earn income and improve their livelihoods by building clean energy businesses and distributing solar lighting and clean cooking technologies in their communities. However, the economic value generated through Solar Sister’s work does not stop at the entrepreneur. To better understand the economic value created by Solar Sister, we conducted a simple return-on-investment analysis for 2025.
The goal was to estimate the financial value created for entrepreneurs, their households, and their communities through Solar Sister’s work, and compare it to Solar Sister’s investment in our entrepreneurs. We found that for every $1 invested in Solar Sister’s work, approximately $15.82 in economic value is created in the communities we serve.
How we calculated economic value:
We looked at four main ways Solar Sister’s work generates economic benefits.
- Income earned by entrepreneurs
Solar Sister entrepreneurs earn income by selling clean energy technologies within their communities. Using total entrepreneur revenue recorded in 2025, we estimated the profit earned by entrepreneurs by applying a conservative 20% profit margin.
- Money saved by households using solar products
Solar lighting replaces traditional and often costly sources of lighting, such as kerosene or candles. These savings were estimated using the GOGLA Impact Calculator, based on the specific products distributed by Solar Sister entrepreneurs.
- Additional income enabled by solar lighting
Access to reliable lighting allows households and small businesses to extend working hours, increase productivity, and generate additional income. These economic benefits were also estimated using GOGLA’s calculator based on the solar products distributed in 2025.
- Economic benefits from clean cookstoves
Clean cookstoves generate economic value by reducing the amount of fuel households need to purchase or collect and by saving time that would otherwise be spent gathering fuel or tending inefficient fires. We estimated these benefits using established research on the economic returns of improved cookstoves in Africa.
When combined, these impacts generate an estimated $30.9 million in economic value for communities.
This analysis highlights the economic ripple effect of clean energy access. Solar Sister’s model supports women entrepreneurs who bring solar energy and clean cooking technologies directly to last-mile communities. The result is a cycle of economic opportunity: entrepreneurs earn income, households save money, increase productivity, and communities gain access to safer, more reliable energy.
While economic return is only one way to measure impact, it provides a useful lens for understanding how investments in clean energy and women’s entrepreneurship translate into real financial benefits for families and communities.
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