SunCulture develops and commercializes efficient, clean, and reliable irrigation solutions for smallholder farmers in Africa. The project helps irrigate the crops all year round.
SunCulture believes that agriculture is such a crucial part of the global economy, and as half of all food produced today is grown using water from natural sources and irrigation, there is a dire need to find alternative solutions to the current water pumping processes, especially in countries such as Kenya where the vast majority of water pumps are diesel or petrol.
SunCulture, through its technology innovation, distributes solar water pumps to replace conventional fossil fuel-fired pumps, increasing water access for food productivity while delivering emission reduction benefits and social co-benefits such as improved livelihoods. The project directly contributes to seven Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified in our Sustainable Impact Framework and is additionally aligned with six more totaling 13 SDGs. The project contributes to significant emissions reductions with the first crediting period expected to end 2027.
Key Numbers
Total expected carbon credits we’ll generate in Kenya over 7 years
Credits generated per pump per year
Over 17%
Total expected customer price reduction
SunCulture so far works with over 40,000 farmers in Africa, most of whom will be beneficiaries of the carbon project. Our monitoring framework consists of a combination of technology platforms with telemetry data from IoT to monitor the solar irrigation functionality and gather data for emissions reduction reporting. We augment IoT data management with field surveys for better quality control on emissions reduction estimates. Each SunCulture pump saves above 1.5tCO2 per annum, thereby generating carbon credits.
A third-party market study suggests decreasing prices by ~50% increases market size by 4-5x; our pilot achieved a 4.3x increase in sales with a price reduction of only ~30%
SunCulture uses carbon finance innovatively to reduce the price of solar irrigation products through subsidies thereby fulfilling the target community social benefit allocation plan.
Each SunCulture solar pump displaces more than 1.5 tons of Carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. SunCulture is therefore able to claim payment for ecosystem services as a result of this offset program.
SunCulture is leading the conversation and playing an enabling role with global reach. Recently we have partnered with BII and Shell Foundation to design an innovative financing facility to harness the future value of carbon credits and lower the upfront cost of climate-smart irrigation products.
Driven by the community
Through dynamic and inclusive engagement sessions, we empower voices from a wide range of stakeholders to come together, share insights, and co-create solutions that address pressing environmental challenges through carbon.
…and monitored through technology
SunCulture’s IoT-enabled devices set a new standard for traceability and deploy a data-first approach to carbon credit generation
Our subsidy program largely contributes to the social capital building of our carbon project while accelerating the addressable market access through affordable solar irrigation pumps.
