High in the Usambara Mountains of northern Tanzania, a woman prepares to give birth in the pitch black. Her family clusters around her. With no electricity at the birthing clinic, someone shines a mobile phone above the midwife’s head.

The baby is the last to be born in near darkness at the Zahanati ya Tema clinic. The next day, a local solar company brings access to clean electricity in the form of a solar home system. The initiative was made possible by solar finance business, SunFunder, which aims to bridge the funding gap between investors and up and coming solar businesses in east Africa.

Across the world some 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity, and a further 1bn struggle with unreliable service. When the sun goes down, millions of families spend their limited household income on costly kerosene oil to light lamps, exposing their children to noxious fumes and inadvertently contributing to atmospheric warming.

Photo: Aerial view of a SunFunder project in Uganda, where many families spend their limited household income on costly kerosene oil to light lamps, exposing their children to noxious fumes | Photo Credit: Ashden