Vietnam was once again the destination for our 7th annual company trip that has become a huge portion of our corporate identity. With a rented bus the team made its way to the beaches of Huế, where the whole company enjoyed the beautiful weather. The raining season with flooded roads and landslides could not hold us back from our well deserved holiday, an incentive for the conjointly progress the Sunlabob team has made regarding our rural electrification projects of last year. Sunlabob’s management understands the huge employee motivation benefit and improvement of organizational environment through this activity.

Under a joint program between the EU-Asia-Link Project and the National University of Lao, Faculty of Engineering, Mr. Kamla Chanthavong, a master student of the Environment Engineering Management program is currently studying Sunlabob.
Mr. Chanthavong researches the differences and similarities of reliability and sustainability of renewable based rural electrification systems between the Lao PDR and other countries and the involvement of the private sector, by providing stronger financial incentives and appropriate institutional support.
With this program, Sunlabob improves its internal training and capacity building within the Lao PDR by application of theoretical knowledge in a practical working environment setting.

From April 2-4th, Peter Cowsill and Ian Booth from Tern Engineering Pe Ltd in Singapore, South East Asian distributor of the Speedrite range of Electric Fencing material, came to Vientiane to sign a distributor agreement with Sunlabob.
The agreement included a solar fence demonstration at a nearby Jatropha test field operated by the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy, a partner of Sunlabob. The material functioned as anticipated and Sunlabob expects to install its first fence next week.

Sunlabob is proud to present to have received the National Energy Globe Award 2007 for its innovative energy concepts “Selling electricity in remote villages off the grid – an integrated strategy of Sunlabob”.

The annually awarded prize was handed over at the Plenary Hall of the European Parliament in Brussels. Special guests included former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mikhail Gorbachev, President of EU-Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and many more.

"The ENERGY GLOBE Awards demonstrate that clean and modern forms of energy to drive sustainable development and reduce environmental impacts are available now. I congratulate all the awardees for their commitment to this cause and for their contributions to the work of the United Nations." (Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General)

On behalf of the provincial education department, Sunlabob has installed 25 solar systems for school dormitories in Oudomxay province, the daily available light will allow school children to read and study during the evening hours. As always, such installations by Sunlabob are with a long duration servicing contract that ensures sustained efficiency of the installed equipment over many years.

The implementation of our franchise agreement with TSSD company in Uganda resulted in a first training in Sunlabob. Ramzy Magambo and Ronald Ssesanga from Uganda and Amour Taha Usi from Tanzania have studied the combination of technologies and field procedures of our services that make Sunlabob so unique in delivering sustained solar services in remote areas. The initial technology that is launched in Uganda is the solar lanterns with central charging stations, for which we have also together won the Lighting Africa Development Market prize in Ghana.

Sunlabob and its partner TSSD are proud to have managed to launch such an intercontinental South-South exchange without any support from outside.

15 families in the remote southern province  of Sekong have entered into a rental contract with Sunlabob for a solar operated pump. With it they irrigate 5 ha of mulberries for raising silk worms. This is a prime example of how our equipment can trigger local income generation. The regular rents allow the community to calculate a fixed regular sum and not worry about saving for amortizations and replacements, something quite impossible in remote areas where banking services are not available. They just pay for their mulberries to regularly get the water they need, Sunlabob takes care of all the rest to make sure it happens.

Sunlabob has been approached by Grace & Tom, a couple from Australia recently married in the Lao PDR to donate a cooling unit to a village. Sunlabob chose Phakbeuak village in Borikhamxay Province that will not be connected to the grid within next 10 years and where Sunlabob operates a franchise system.

We are proud to announce the successful completion of the Global Young Leaders Programme with SUNLABOB.

We won the prize! A delegation from Sunlabob and from our Ugandan partner TSSD attended the event for the finalists in Accra, Ghana, where we presented our product and our plans. Our stand with the new solar lamps and recharging stations drew the interest of diverse agencies, particularly IFC, the Worldbank and GEF. The South-South learning that we are achieving here was much appreciated. This is the second time that Sunlabob has won a Development Marketplace grant of the Worldbank, a very rare achievement. We believe this is because again Sunlabob has proven to be spearheading an innovative approach that can break open a big worldwide potential in rural electrification.
So the project that we will be implementing together with TSSD is going to install charging stations in Uganda. This means we will be able to launch this effort with the grant from the Worldbank. We are delighted, as this is an excellent beginning for our expansion in Africa along with our franchised partners TSSD. We are entering a large potential market for our products and services in Africa.

 

Sunlabob has partnered up with the Ugandan company TSSD and submitted a proposal for a franchise operation in Uganda for promoting the solar lamps we have developed. The project is called "Recharging Fees can buy Hours of Solar Light". This proposal is now among the finalists at the "Lighting Africa Development Martketplace" that will be held in Accra, Ghana May 5-8. Sunlabob will be attending there together with our partner TSSD. The 20 winners at the Marketplace will be grant-funded by the Worldbank and its partners operating the Development Marketplace. See also: www.lightingafrica.org
The event in Ghana will help us a lot in getting a foothold in Africa with our products and services.

In order to attract more tourists, a spectacular cave in northern Laos has now been equipped with a solar-powered lighting by Sunlabob. Funding for this installation has been provided by the ADB tourist programme.

A further upgrade training for the first group of our franchisees took place in the Sunlabob headquarters. The training covered technical issues and the introduction of a new charge controller which allows internal monitoring of every single system. The franchisees also received an upgraded training for installation practices. Furthermore, a new operative system for the franchise system has been introduced and trained. With the new operative system considerable financial risk is shifted from the mother company to the franchisees.
These upgrade trainings will be continued in the future with our other franchisees.

Sunlabob has installed solar energy systems in 30 village schools in Luang Namtha province in northern Laos. The public installations were co-financed by the families of the villages who covered 25% of the initial funding. The remaining costs of the installations were covered by funds of the EU and the German organization GTZ.
Sunlabob has installed the photovoltaic systems and in order to provide sustainability has trained the local technicians in first level maintenance.
Sunlabob will provide spare parts for the energy systems through our locally based franchisees.

Sunlabob would like to welcome everyone to our brand new website.
The new site has a sleek design and is easy to navigate, making it easier for everyone to gain information about Sunlabob. Here’s some information about what you can expect to find on our new site. If you can’t find something you’re looking for, try the Search option, available on every page. Want to get a closer look at a picture? Simply click on it to get an enlarged view.

• On this page, keep up with Sunlabob’s current events and latest activities. Also, learn more about the various awards and honors Sunlabob has received.
• Learn about us and our mission under What is Sunlabob?
• If you’re looking for a system, or a piece of equipment, to purchase for your home, office, or elsewhere, check out our extensive catalog in the Energy Hardware section, where we offer PV systems, solar water heaters, backup systems, LED lighting, and more. If you have a specific system in mind that you don’t see here, please contact us and we can help design it for you.
• Under Energy Programmes, you can learn more about the various social projects that we continue to implement around Laos, designed to provide affordable energy solutions to off-grid areas. If your organization is interested in partnering with us on any of these projects, please contact us.
• Peruse our list of Energy Partners in hardware, projects, implementation, and business strategy.
• Learn about employment and internship opportunities under Energy Jobs/Interns.
• See our extensive research, development of innovative ideas, and presentations in Energy Concept Papers.
• Keep up-to-date with news, information, and reports about the national grid and Energy Issues in the Lao PDR.
• Finally, see our contact information and map to our office, as well as send us an email with your questions and inquiries from Contact Us.

We will continue to update this website, so check in from time to time to see our recent changes.

Sunlabob announces that we are now selling a brand new product – solar electric fencing. This is the first time that this product has been available in Laos.
Electric fencing is designed as a psychological barrier to animals, to prevent them from destroying crops or escaping their enclosures. The fence delivers a short, sharp shock to an animal touching the fence, ensuring that they will not touch the fence again, but without causing injury. Solar electric fencing comes in portable and fixed models, is comparable in price to conventional barbed wire fencing systems, has a long lifetime, can be used in any location, and can be used on any animal.
Sunlabob is selling a wide range of solar electric fencing products that can be used for small animals like pigs all the way through to large animals like cows and buffalo.

Climate change has become one of the most important issues facing the world today. Energy production from fossil fuels makes a significant contribution to this problem.
In order to help our customers become greener, and save themselves money, Sunlabob announces that we are now providing a new energy efficiency service. Sunlabob can provide an energy efficiency audit service to homes and businesses, where an assessment is made of current energy use practices and advice offered on how energy use can be reduced. Sunlabob can also provide a wide range of products to make energy efficiency easier.