Little Sun is an innovative way to get clean, affordable light to the 1.6 billion people worldwide without access to the electrical grid.


Little Sun is:

  • An attractive, high-quality solar-powered lamp in the shape of a hand-sized sun developed by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen
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  • A social business that produces Little Sun lamps and distributes them worldwide by establishing sustainable trade routes, allowing off-grid distributors to profit while bringing light to local users

  • A global project connecting the world’s electrified areas with off-grid communities – purchasing a Little Sun at the regular price of €20 in areas of the world with electricity allows Little Suns to be sold off-grid at much lower, locally affordable prices
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  • A work of art that works in life
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    What Little Sun does

    The Little Sun project was officially launched in July 2012 at London’s Tate Modern and currently has distribution in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Senegal, and Zimbabwe, as well as the EU and the US. The popularity of Little Sun lies not just in the global south, but all over the world.

    This means Little Sun has been able to develop a unique social business model that uses the revenue from the higher on-grid sales prices of lamps to invest in the sustainable distribution of lamps in off-grid communities. Thus Little Sun is able to help create off-grid jobs and support off-grid entrepreneurs, generating local profits.

    Projects with on-grid partners such as art institutions, international agencies, NGOs, and private sector partners are used to raise global awareness of energy access and solar power, to reduce off-grid prices even further, and when necessary, to raise funds for lamps to be supplied free-of-charge to people outside the reach of markets.


    Join us

    You can get involved in the project by purchasing a Little Sun of your own, spreading the word, or following us on Facebook and Twitter. Join our growing Little Sun community!

    Unique social business model

    Little Sun is a social business that follows the principle of trade, not aid. It’s not just about delivering light to people – it matters how it gets there. Our mission is to address the need for light in a sustainable way that benefits off-grid communities. 
No profits from the Little Sun project are diverted to investors – in fact, we have no investors. All funds generated by Little Sun are used to drive the project. Little Sun aims to spread light, safe energy, and profits everywhere.

    Read Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus’ Seven Principles of Social Business here.

    Little Sun supports the UN initiative to achieve universal access to modern energy services by 2030, established by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. Read about the initiative here.




    Partners and collaborators


    Production partner Collaborator Development partner Engineering partner Media support Project partner Collaborator