GOGLA supports the growth and strengthens the market for clean, quality off-grid lighting and electrical systems for households, SMEs and communities in developing countries.

Around 1 billion people live without access to electricity; about one in seven people on earth. Off-grid energy appliances and services can address this issue, particularly across developing and emerging countries. GOGLA was created to accelerate access to modern energy, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 7. We strive to be the voice of the fast growing sector, representing over 135 companies and organizations within the solar lighting and home electrification industry.

The products and solutions that GOGLA members promote are affordable. They transform lives by improving health and education, creating jobs and income opportunities and helping consumers save money.

We work on three core enablers

GOGLA’s objective is to help the industry grow quickly but sustainably. We're focusing our efforts on three core enablers to grow the sector. Here’s an outline of our current global sector supporting programs:

• ‘Mobilizing investment’ - Access to finance is a key enabler of market growth. We focus on generating market intelligence and on facilitating dialogue between industry and investors, among others, through targeted events.
• ‘Creating an enabling environment’ - This involves advocacy work with national governments and major influencers, helping to shape policy. Part of this includes demonstrating the economic, environmental and social impact of access to clean, modern energy.
• ‘Quality assurance and consumer protection’ - We want to ensure that consumers get good and reliable products and services for their money. We’re seeing a trend in low-quality and ‘copycat’ products coming to the market. When such products fail they damage consumer confidence in the technology, so we’re working on consumer protection and on promoting globally harmonized minimum quality standards. We also seek to ensure products can be serviced, and are handled responsibly, both environmentally and socially, from production to the end of their life.

How does GOGLA and our industry contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 7?

Off-grid lighting and electrification products sold by GOGLA members and other industry players have already reached over 150 million people worldwide. Based on Sustainable Energy for All’s “Global Tracking Framework” methodology for counting energy access, 55 million people have now reached Tier 1 energy access, and 3.7 million people reached Tier 2 energy access, as reported in our latest semi-annual Global Off-Grid Solar Market Report.

Dalberg Advisors forecasts the market for these products to grow by around 25% year-on-year, reaching close to 150 million households (around 740 million people) by 2022. This means that the market for off-grid lighting and electrification products is well on its way to providing a significant share of households that currently do not have energy access, with basic electricity services. GOGLA believes that, combined with new energy access provided by grid extensions and other routes, the SDG 7 target of universal energy access by 2030 is thus becoming a realistic target. GOGLA’s activities contribute to maintaining and increasing this annual market growth, while simultaneously seeking to ensure that the market becomes as sustainable as possible.

Further reading

• Download the GOGLA brochure