Page 165 - ISES SWC50

1986
• Pradip Jayewardene, Viren Perera and Lalith Gunaratne started Power & Sun (Pvt) Limited in Sri Lanka. At
one stage they were assembling solar modules with imported cells. The company changed to Solar Power
and Light company which was purchased by Shell Solar in 1999.
• Finnish government owned Neste starts the research & development project called NAPS (Neste
Advanced Power Systems) aiming for launching a photovoltaic business. In 1981 Neste had acquired
a solar photovoltaic unit set up by Ericsson in Sweden which was focused on supplying solar power to
telecommunications. NAPS focused on off grid solutions and products, and marketed and sold globally,
particularly in developing countries. NAPS still operates today and it became an independent company in
2001.
• EU commission started the Regional Solar Programme in West Africa. This program installed:
o 626 PV water pumping systems in nine West African countries
o 660 community systems installed for lighting and cold storage.
o Total of 1,257kW of PV was installed by 1996.

1987
• Three more companies commence operation in Kenya: NAPS; Chintu Engineering; Total Solar.

1988
• Daniel Kithoki, who had been working closely with Harold Burris in Kenya, starts Solar Energy Installations.

1989
• Two more companies commence operation in Kenya: Animatic and Botto Solar.
• Richard Hansen introduced PV for rural electrification in Honduras and formed SOLUZ Honduras
which still operates in 2020.

ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions | 147