Shamsina: Sun for All

Shamsina was established in response to multiple challenges that it observed in an unplanned district in Cairo, AlDarb AlAhmar. The majority of households in this district do not have reliable or complete access to energy. AlDarb AlAhmar also suffers from a lack of access to steady employment and skills training that would allow for upward mobility. This scenario is not unique to this single community, but manifests nationally across nearly half of Egypt’s population, and globally across an estimated billion people with unreliable energy access.  

Shamsina manufactures original solar technologies in, by, and for energy poor communities. Shamsina seeks to address multiple challenges at once: it provides reliable energy access, but also provides education, skills, and employment opportunities, and invests in local economies. Shamsina’s model enables communities to create their own energy supply and address their own needs.

Poverty comes in many forms and carries a multitude of dimensions. Energy poverty, one of these forms, is a particularly dangerous global challenge; it keeps the poor, poor. Women and children are often the most affected. They spend their time pursuing dangerous methods of heating and lighting. These methods wreak havoc on both human and environmental health, and leave less time for education, work or other pursuits. In the Middle East, the challenge is often understudied and overlooked, in part because of the region’s role as an energy producer. In Egypt, where we are based, 47% of the population has no access to a water heater. This means that they use gas tanks, kerosene lamps or other means to manually heat a pot of water at a time for daily use. Often this burden falls on mothers. These tanks and lamps emit hazardous and carcinogenic compounds and have caused burns, particularly among children. Beyond this challenge, these communities suffer high poverty and unemployment rates. In some cases, the areas are either unplanned or remote, and thus lack access to government services and infrastructure. Shamsina aims to address these interrelated challenges by enabling communities to create their own solution.

Shamsina is and has been a community-based initiative, from concept to operations. Shamsina was inspired by AlDarb AlAhmar, an unplanned district in Cairo where we first observed the challenge of lack of access to hot water. Extensive interviews and meetings with community members were conducted, and are an ongoing part of our work. Our solution was itself suggested by community members, who included a few households who received a solar water heater through a donation. Our technology—an affordable flat panel solar water heater—was created through an iterative process with community members, who we train and employ. As we work in the heart of the skilled workers’ districts, these members use their own expertise to improve upon material usage and manufacturing methods. 

In its daily operations, Shamsina educates, trains, employees and sources materials locally. Shamsina enables communities to secure their energy needs, by leveraging local talents and resources.  

Shamsina, Arabic for ‘Our Sun’, manufactures original and affordable solar powered water heaters for energy poor communities. It operates out of a workshop in AlDarb AlAhmar—the district that inspired the initiative. Shamsina is a community organization in every sense of the word: it utilizes a local technology design; it supplies raw materials from local, small-scale businesses; it trains and employs members of the community; it promotes awareness of local and global ecology among school children; and ultimately provides energy services to the community. Shamsina’s model enables communities to create their own energy supply.

 Shamsina has achieved many milestones. It worked with engineers, skilled craftsmen, and community members to co-design an affordable solar-powered water heater. The solar water heater was designed specifically for communities in need: it is affordable and effective, and constructed entirely out of materials found on the local market. Shamsina’s water heater is the only one that targets poor communities in Egypt; and, as prices surge, is more than three-fold cheaper than the most inexpensive, water heater on the Egyptian market.  Shamsina has trained community members to construct the water heater and employed these individuals on a part-time basis to construct the heaters.

 Shamsina has installed pilots across urban, rural, coastal, and desert locations in Egypt. Surveys are currently being implemented to measure the effectiveness and impact of these heaters. Shamsina is currently working with engineers at Egypt’s National Research Center to design and pilot a second version of a solar water heater, with the goal of achieving higher cost efficiency.

 Shamsina’s most powerful innovation lies not in its technology, however, but rather in its decentralized model. Energy is typically imagined as a top-down government service. Instead we are enabling communities, ones often difficult to reach or overlooked by government, to secure their own energy sources. And to do so in a way that is practically feasible, affordable, good for the economy, and good for the health of both environment and humans. More than anything, Shamsina hopes that this model will spread throughout this industry and to others in the region; if scaled, the model has high potential to transform economic structures and state-society relations.

Shamsina is technologically innovative. It has created an original, albeit simple and low-tech, solar water heater, with the goal of making something that is affordable and locally manufacturable. It continues to partner with engineers and research entities to innovate in this area.

However, the core innovation of Shamsina is in its decentralized model. Shamsina establishes shops in the communities that it serves, where it trains and employees community members to manufacture and maintain the water heaters. This is core to the sustainability of the model, as it ensures local know-how for addressing energy needs. Shamsina’s model turns energy—a traditionally top-down service in this part of the world—into something that communities can secure for themselves using available resources. Shamsina sends the message that communities can create their own solutions to local challenges.

Shamsina also seeks to disrupt the traditional energy industry. By creating a model where energy is produced through an inclusive, labor intensive, bottom-up approach to energy, it stands in contrast to current modes of producing energy. The energy industry is in the hands of the few, requiring little participation or labor. Thus, benefits are reaped and access is determined by those few.  By empowering communities to power themselves, Shamsina is allowing people to imagine a world where energy is truly a common good. 

Shamsina’s technology is an original, affordable solar water heater. It is a flat panel solar water heater, manufactured entirely from local materials. The design of the heater is similar to traditional flat panel heaters found in the market—but departs in that it is tailored to the communities it serves. Specifically, the materials are adjusted based on local availability, and the heater is designed so that it can be easily transported to and placed upon roof-tops of local buildings (often with narrow entries, and limited spatial capacity).

Shamsina is currently developing a second solar water heater, based on research conducted by engineers from Egypt’s National Research Center. That model works to lower the costs even further and makes the design more compact—by collapsing the panel and storage tank of the heater into a single unit—to make it even more convenient for local transport and installation

Shamsina's core activity is the innovation, manufacturing, and installation of affordable solar water heaters with locally-sourced materials. In doing so, we educate, train and employ community members.

The main output is solar water heaters that provide hot water to households without access. For beneficiary households, this means that women spend less time manually heating water; that women and others present are healthier because they no longer breathe dangerous fumes from alternative heating methods; fewer children are burned; and fewer emissions are released. It also means that bathing is more convenient, with positive implications for household hygiene.

For Shamsina’s workers, participation means that they have a new skill and a job. Whether they continue in their role in the long term or not, they have built a new body of knowledge and skills that will be useful in many contexts.

For Shamsina’s small-scale suppliers, our activities contribute to their ability to maintain and grow their businesses.

For children in the area, exposure to the water heaters and to Shamsina’s education sessions piques their interest and awareness of solar technologies, planting seeds for potential innovations among this growing generation. 

Shamsina ultimately contributes to creating healthier and more economically vibrant communities.

Current: 250 individuals. Shamsina has installed 15 water heaters in locations across the country. Pilots are installed in both community and residential centers, and are located in urban, rural, coastal, and desert locations. Community centers serve dozens from underprivileged communities on a daily basis, including low-income children and the disabled. Households provide for families that range from 5 to 12 individuals. In sum, Shamsina water heaters currently reach over 250 individuals on a daily basis.

One year: 1,000 individuals. In the next year we aim to serve 1,000 people through the installation of an additional 50 communities. In addition to growing in Egypt, we will be piloting our model with refugee communities in Jordan and low-income communities in Saudi Arabia.

Five years: 20,000 individuals. Over the next five years, we will not simply grow linearly, but are innovating on our technology to increase its capacity so that a single water heater can serve an entire building rather than household. We are also in the process of piloting alternative financial models, to reach poorer communities. Thus, through a combination of our current heater, and this future model we will be able to serve more people with fewer heaters. Beyond Egypt, we will have expanded to countries within the region, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and potentially Bahrain. 

Goal 1 – New Communities: We will scale our existing model to be replicated in additional communities across Egypt. We are also in the process of forming agreements with organizations in Jordan and Saudi Arabia to pilot our model in new locations, and plan to begin implementation within the coming year. In the next five years, we hope to be operating in multiple countries in the Middle East. In addition to our main activity, we also plan to further develop and grow our education sessions.

Goal 2 – Even Better Technologies: We are currently continuing with R&D in order to develop a more compact and efficient solar water heating technology, with affordability in mind. The hope here is to develop a technology that can serve multiple households at once—lowering the cost for the end-user and allowing us to more efficiently reach a higher number of people.

Goal 3 – New Solar Energy Technologies: Once fully establishing our current model with the existing product, we hope to explore the potential of replicating the model for other solar technologies. This may be done through partnerships—we are currently in discussion with multinational energy firms to diagnose and solve around lighting needs. 

In Shamsina's history we have seen and expect to continue to see conditions of political, economic and social turmoil that interfere with our work. On the economic front, this means sharp price fluctuations that make the costs of our raw materials in particular unstable. It also means that as prices rise for the communities we serve, there is less and less disposable income to spend on non-essentials. It also means, however, that their alternatives to a solar water heater—the gas tank and kerosene lamp—are also rising in price. On the socio-political front, many of the communities we work with live in precarious conditions and are at times in conflict with authorities or other community members. 

Shamsina has prioritized listening closely to the communities themselves, and adjusting our approaches to account for local structures, in order to be able to overcome daily obstacles in order to reach people in need. This means that while we have produced an affordable technology, our research and development does not end there—we continue to innovate for affordability, knowing that our communities face increasing financial pressures. We also conduct research on financial model approaches, to allow our work to reach those under more strenuous financial conditions. On the socio-political front, we form extensive partnerships with local organizations and households in an effort to ensure that we are attuned to the unique conditions of each community and can adjust our approach depending on local circumstances. 

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On the executive-level, Shamsina is led by co-founders Sarah Mousa and Deena Mousa, and Ahmed Batran. Shamsina manufacturing operations are led part-time by Hussein Muhsin, who supervises 5 part-time trained workers. In addition, a part-time research and documentation team includes 3 additional members. 2 volunteer engineers have partnered with Shamsina for technology design. 

Our team includes a diverse set of skills and expertise. Sarah Mousa comes with a social and economic development background, armed with research skill sets and strategic consulting background that have allowed for diagnosis of challenges and design of solutions. Deena Mousa has a background in community engagement, that has allowed for dynamic outreach to diverse communities across the country. Ahmed Batran carries an engineering background and leads our technical work. Hussein Muhsin has decades of experience managing community projects and is skilled in construction of local low-tech products. Combined, and in addition to our partnerships, this diverse set of skills allows us to take a multi-faceted approach to solving energy challenges.

Shamsina is partnered with a long list of organizations. This includes local organizations in every community we work in, including: Agha Khan Foundation in AlDarb AlAhmar, Cairo; Nebny Foundation in Manshiet Nasser, Cairo; Ruwwad in Ezbet Khairalla, Cairo; the Social Development Organization in Warraq Island; HandOver in Sinai; as well as other local organizations in Dumyat, Qena and Sohag. Shamsina is partnered with the National Research Center for research and development of new technologies. It is partnered with Yomken.com for identifying relevant communities, nationwide. Shamsina works closely with KMT house—a hub for urban startups—to ensure that its work is leveraging the work of other initiatives working to solve community challenges. Partnerships are critical to enriching the work of Shamsina, from its technology development to community engagement. 

Shamsina operates with a decentralized model - where its technology is constructed by local shops in the communities that it serves. Currently, Shamsina heaters are provided to residential end-users at a subsidized cost; a part of the cost is absorbed by local NGOs. End-users provide their portion of the cost up-front. Shamsina is experimenting with other financial models that will allow end-users to internalize the full cost of the product, including incremental payment schemes.

Currently, Shamsina is sustainable by selling its technology at a shared cost to end-users and NGOs. Shamsina is experimenting with alternative models that would allow end-users to fully internalize costs, including incremental payments or allowing multiple households within a building to share a water heater. 

Solve will allow us to tap into global expertise and a community that can provide us with feedback as we work to test and tweak alternative technologies and models, as well as scale our work nation- and region-wide. Decisions that we make over the next year will have a shaping impact on the form that Shamsina takes, and will be critical to its longterm success. We hope that Solve can be a part of our story, and can help enrich Shamsina and multiply its impact. 

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We have established strong partnerships with diverse organizations within Egypt and continue to expand this network regularly. Beyond this, the most helpful types of partnerships would be with global organizations that can contribute new perspectives to our community-based approach. Locally, we continue to partner with diverse community-connected organizations including  NGOS with focuses ranging from social livelihoods to education, ecolodges, sustainable construction, and so on. The point of these local partnerships is to remain in tune with local communities and needs as we implement our project. On the front of technological research and development as well as business model design, we have partnered in the past with individuals and groups at MIT, CleanTech Arabia, Philips, the IMF and World Bank. While we have strong local partnerships, we need stronger global partnerships with universities, research institutions, private energy sector firms, and development organizations in order to refine our model and deliver in the most effective form. 

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A big part of Shamsina's work has been to train, educate and employ local, low-income communities as a way of boosting social mobility. By building local know-how, we hope this produces ripple effects beyond Shamsina itself, where our trainees and employees may transfer skills to create their own technologies or solutions to local needs. The GM prize will allow us to expand on our training and education programs to reach a long list of communities that have demonstrated a demand--even directly requested--access to these opportunities. 

Shamsina's work seeks to disrupt the energy industry in the Middle East, by demonstrating a decentralized and sustainable alternative to what is now a highly centralized and unsustainable traditional approach. In our region, this has had repercussions beyond 'where energy comes from' - it is the very basis for state-society relations in many cases. Highly centralized energy production means a single entity controls access and reaps benefits. Shamsina provides a glimpse into an alternative world where the energy resources are directly in the hands of the people.

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