Light for Honduras: Financing the roll-out of solar energy in Honduras

Light for Honduras

Financing the roll-out of solar energy in Honduras

Solar energy in Honduras: collective loans with the goal of reaching 30,000 people

Through Light for Honduras, Light Humanity used its Solar Crowd platform to raise crowdfunded loans so that the social enterprise Soluz Honduras could bring solar energy to rural families and schools without electricity. The first loan arrived in early 2023 and aimed to bring power to 30,000 people; the next two targeted 930 families in Yoro.

  • What it is: financing to give rural families and schools in Honduras without electricity access to solar energy.
  • Where: rural areas of Honduras; the second and third loans in Yoro.
  • With whom: Soluz Honduras, a social enterprise working in microcredit and solar energy, and the lenders of Solar Crowd.
  • How: Soluz finances the equipment for families; a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) system unlocks it with each monthly instalment.
  • When: the first loan arrived in early 2023; a donation campaign on Goteo followed in June.
  • Outcome: according to the page for the second loan, Soluz was meeting all its obligations on the first; the first two were 100% funded and the third is listed at 20%.
  • What's next: Soluz's pages on Solar Crowd announce its “Mission 2030”: electrifying 10,000 homes.
A man kneeling beside a solar panel on the porch of a wooden rural house in Honduras
A man beside a solar panel on the porch of a wooden rural house. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A woman and two children outside their adobe house in Honduras, with two solar panels on the roof
A family outside their adobe house, with two solar panels on the roof. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A rural adobe house with a tiled roof and a small solar panel, among the mountains of Honduras
A rural adobe and tile home with its small solar panel. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A Sun King Home 120 solar kit hanging on the adobe wall of a rural Honduran home
A Sun King Home 120 kit on the adobe wall of a house. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
Vídeo: Soluz Honduras and Solar Crowd
Soluz Honduras and Solar Crowd: power for more than 1,500 people, the goal of the second loan. Video: Solar Crowd (YouTube, 28/12/2023)

From the Amazon to Honduras: how Light Humanity's crowdfunding began

Light Humanity, the NGO founded by Eugenio García-Calderón Huerta, had been working for more than four years on access to solar energy in remote areas such as the Brazilian Amazon (Light of the Amazon) when it discovered the potential of crowdfunding. That was how Solar Crowd came about, incubated and promoted by the NGO (Funds Society).

  • Launch: in late 2022, separate from the NGO's website.
  • For every pocket: lending starts at 100 euros, with a choice of return between 0 and 6% a year (Energías Renovables).
  • Four countries: by June 2023, Solar Crowd had already supported more than 20,000 people in Kenya, Colombia, Spain and Honduras.

Energy poverty in Honduras: 11% of the rural population still had no electricity in 2023

According to the World Bank, 11% of Honduras's rural population had no access to electricity in 2023. Solar Crowd's project pages speak of 30% of rural families without a grid connection and 44% of rural schools without electricity (SoLuz Honduras loan). Many communities rely on oil lamps, candles and kerosene for light.

  • In Yoro: more than 20,000 rural homes have no grid connection, according to the Honduran Energy Agency (2022), cited on the page for the second loan.
  • The barrier: the cost of the equipment; families need microcredit to pay for it.
“Access to solar energy in the world's most remote and vulnerable regions is no longer a technological challenge, but a financial one” — Arturo Rubio, co-founder and head of projects at Solar Crowd (Energías Renovables)

Soluz Honduras: microcredit and solar energy for rural Honduras since 1994

The local partner was Soluz Honduras, a triple-impact social enterprise and pioneer of solar rural electrification. It combines microcredit and solar energy to reach the country's most remote and impoverished areas. It was founded by Richard Hansen in 1994 (NextBillion).

  • Track record: it has brought solar energy to more than 30,000 homes and businesses in Honduras, according to NextBillion (2025).
  • Where it operates: 15 staff and offices in San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Yoro and Santa Rosa de Copán.
  • Backing: it has been a Kiva partner since June 2014; through that microcredit platform it has raised more than 1.5 million dollars in loans for its clients.
  • A credit history for families: all its clients are registered with the Credit Bureau, which opens the door to other loans.
“This loan is very important for expanding our inventory of solar products and being able to meet the different needs of families living without electricity in rural areas” — Richard Hansen, founder and CEO of Soluz Honduras (Solar Crowd)
A man and a woman pose outside a Soluz Honduras shop with a Sun King sign
A Soluz Honduras shop with a sign for Sun King, a brand of solar equipment. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A Soluz Honduras pickup truck parked outside a building with solar panels on the roof
Solar panels on a roof and a Soluz pickup truck. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd

First SoLuz Honduras loan: a goal of 30,000 people with solar energy

Soluz Honduras sought a crowdfunded loan on Solar Crowd to finance solar energy for rural homes and schools without electricity (loan page). The money arrived in early 2023, according to the Goteo campaign.

  • Expected impact: more than 30,000 people with solar energy, 450,000 watts of capacity and 425 tonnes of CO₂ avoided each year.
  • Guarantees: Soluz deposited four monthly instalments, and Solar Crowd's reserve covered a further 5% of potential defaults.

Norma, in Yoro: solar power thanks to the first loan

Norma lives with her husband and three children in a neighbourhood of Yoro with no electricity service, and she asked Soluz for a loan for a solar lighting system. In June 2023, the Goteo campaign reported that she now had solar energy at home thanks to the first loan.

Norma, a Soluz Honduras client in Yoro, beside her television and her Sun King solar kit
Norma, a Soluz client in Yoro, with her television and her Sun King solar kit. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A woman outside her home in a rural mountain area of Honduras, with a solar panel on the roof
A woman outside her home, with a small solar panel on the roof. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd

Goteo, 2023: Solar Crowd and Light Humanity seek donations against energy poverty

Solar Crowd's investors could not cover all the funding that projects like the one in Honduras were seeking (Funds Society). So in June 2023 Solar Crowd and Light Humanity launched the donation campaign “Solar Energy against Energy Poverty” on Goteo (Energías Renovables). In the campaign video, Solar Crowd said the Honduras project had already helped more than 15,000 people.

  • Targets: a minimum of 5,160 euros, for 40 Sun King solar systems of 30 watts, and an optimum of 25,800 euros (Goteo).
  • How it worked: donations would go to Soluz as an interest-free solidarity loan; families pay for their system in instalments over at least two years, after which it is theirs.
  • Halfway through the campaign: on 27 June 2023 it had raised 2,769 euros from 21 co-funders, 53% of the minimum, with 28 days to go (archived copy).
  • Another campaign, at Fundación Triodos: the Light Humanity Fund (video) sought to lend 12,500 euros to Soluz for more than 3,000 people; it closed at 2,927 euros, 23% of the minimum.

Light of Honduras II and III: rural electrification in Yoro for 310 and 620 families

Soluz returned to Solar Crowd with a second round to expand its inventory and serve 310 rural families in Yoro (Light of Honduras II). The third raised the goal to 620 families and more than 3,000 people (Light of Honduras III).

  • Second loan: more than 1,500 people and 3,700 watts, according to its page and the description of a Solar Crowd video.
  • A 25% guarantee on the second: 2,000 euros from Soluz and the rest from Solar Crowd's Contingency Fund.
A man in a hat at the entrance to his rural home in Honduras, with a solar panel on the roof
A local resident at the entrance to his home, with a small solar panel on the roof. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd
A rural house painted turquoise in Honduras, with two solar panels on its sheet-metal roof
Two solar panels on the roof of a rural home. Photo: Soluz Honduras / Solar Crowd

Kenya, Honduras, Colombia and Cañada Real: Light Humanity's solar electrification

In 2024, Energías Renovables listed Honduras among Light Humanity's renewable electrification projects, alongside Kenya, Colombia and Cañada Real in Madrid.

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