Kara Solar

Kara Solar

Kara Solar

Building a unified ecosystem for Indigenous-led solar-powered river transport in the Amazon

Quito, Ecuador

Ecuador

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

The Amazon is crossed by navigable rivers—ancestral highways that connect communities and sustain the cultures and economies of nearly 30 million people. Yet most river transport in remote territories runs on gasoline, consuming up to half of household incomes, contaminating waterways, and tying communities to fossil fuels. Without affordable alternatives, communities accept roads that promise easier access to markets but drive deforestation and extractive industry. A 2026 IDB Invest study found that a proposed 138 km road in Ecuador's Achuar territory could cause 12,000 hectares of forest loss and 2 million tons of CO₂ over three decades. Across the Amazon, Indigenous peoples who protect 40% of the region's forests face the same dilemma, threatening the world's largest carbon sink and the lands and waters they call home. Yet clean river transport is almost entirely absent from the sustainable development agenda. The global energy sector has designed clean tech for grids, rooftops, and roads while nearly ignoring the mobility needs of tens of millions of Amazonian people. The result is that communities are caught between expensive gasoline now or destructive roads later. Kara Solar offers a third way: solar-powered river transport networks that strengthen Indigenous sovereignty instead of undermining it.

"Kara" means "a dream come true" in Achuar. Since 2016, we have built solar boats in Achuar territory and shared learnings with Indigenous partners across the Amazon. Our solution integrates three components: Solar-electric boats. Twelve community shuttle boats operate across five rainforest countries. We now manufacture our own 5 kW electric motors and long-tail drivetrains in Quito. These can travel approximately 30 km on one battery charge, match the power of a 9 HP gasoline engine, and fit the most common boat hull in the Amazon. The solar boats use no gasoline or polluting oil lubricants. Solar charging infrastructure. Modular solar installations recharge boat batteries while powering schools, internet, conservation monitoring, and local enterprises. Local technical training. Sixteen certified solar technicians in Achuar territory and 200+ Indigenous people trained across the Amazon. All boats and installations are operated and maintained by local technicians. We built our first solar boat, Tapiatpia in part thanks to MIT. Researchers from MIT's Center for Ocean Engineering, including Dr. Chrys Chryssostomidis, validated the feasibility of solar propulsion on Amazonian rivers, complemented by an early business plan from Sloan students. A decade later, that proof-of-concept has grown into a network ready to scale across the basin.

Kara Solar's primary beneficiaries are Indigenous communities whose rivers are their roads. We directly serve approximately 4,000 people across 12 communities in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, and the Solomon Islands. These communities are isolated from electrical grids and subject to some of the highest fuel costs in Latin America due to the logistical challenges of importation in the rainforest. Solar boats connect these underserved communities, carrying children to school, patients to health centers, and goods to market, helping families save up to $1,000 USD annually on avoided gasoline costs, according to IDB Invest (2026). Solar charging centers power internet, conservation monitoring equipment, and lights in communal spaces. By providing an alternative to roads and the deforestation they bring, our solar boats support the preservation of 5 million hectares of intact forest. Research from the Conservation Strategy Fund (2023) found that demand for roads dropped from 41% to 2% in Achuar communities after the introduction of solar transport alternatives. The solution also builds technical capacity and clean, local economies. Kara Solar has generated 15 green jobs for solar technicians in Achuar territory and trained over 200 people in skills with growing market value across the Amazon's emerging solar sector.