Solar Association Tiloo: Harnessing The Gambia’s Sunshine

The Gambia has no shortage of sunshine. For Solar Association Tiloo, that sunshine was not simply something to endure in the middle of the day: it was a source of energy that could be used for cooking, baking, drying food, training young people and creating small-business opportunities.

Archive update – October 2026: The Tiloo project has since ceased operating, but its work remains an interesting part of The Gambia’s recent environmental and social history. This article has been expanded with additional historical research and photographs taken during visits to the project.

From Solar Project Gambia to Solar Association Tiloo

The project began in January 2006, founded by Elena Steger Kassama and Amadou Kassama. Contemporary reports describe its early aim very simply: to make solar cooking and solar food processing practical in The Gambia, while reducing dependence on firewood and charcoal.

It began in Fajikunda before moving to Kanifing South. Imported solar cookers were used at first, but the longer-term goal was to manufacture equipment locally so that the technology could be adapted to Gambian conditions and, as far as possible, made more affordable.

In January 2007, five craftsmen were trained to manufacture solar equipment. The workshop went on to produce two sizes of box-type solar cooker as well as solar tunnel dryers. That local-production element was important: this was not simply a matter of importing unfamiliar technology and hoping people would use it.

Cooking with the power of the sun

The simplest Tiloo cookers worked rather like insulated ovens. Sunlight entered through glass and reflective surfaces directed additional energy into the dark interior, where heat was trapped. Food could then be baked or cooked without burning wood or charcoal.

Tiloo also demonstrated large parabolic reflectors. These curved mirrors concentrated sunlight onto a much smaller cooking area. They look rather spectacular in photographs, but the principle is wonderfully straightforward: focus enough sunlight onto the base of a pan and you can cook with it.

And yes, in one of our photographs that really is a frying pan of eggs cooking in the Gambian sunshine.

The surviving Tiloo recipe and instruction book gives an idea of how varied the experiments became. It included roasted peanuts, eggs, mangoes, wonjo, breads, cakes and biscuits as well as Gambian dishes including domoda and plassas.

A solar bakery and the Sunshine Restaurant

Solar cooking quickly became more than a demonstration project. A bakery was developed using a number of solar ovens, producing bread, pastries, cakes and savoury food. In April 2007 the project also opened a solar restaurant, creating a place where Gambians and visitors could see the technology working rather than merely hear about it.

A WISIONS case study records that by the end of the 2007–08 project phase there was a functioning workshop producing solar stoves and dryers, together with the bakery and restaurant. Six people were employed by the project in 2008.

The restaurant also provided an opportunity to talk to customers about fuelwood use and deforestation. That combination of practical demonstration and everyday commerce was one of Tiloo’s more interesting ideas: renewable energy was being shown as something that could actually be used to make lunch, bake bread or earn an income.

Drying fruit without electricity

Cooking was only part of the project. Tiloo also built solar dryers designed to remove moisture from fruit and other produce using the heat of the sun.

Food drying matters because fresh produce can spoil quickly in a hot climate. Extending its useful life can reduce waste and also create products that can be packaged and sold later. Tiloo linked this kind of processing to income generation, particularly for women and small producers.

The project experimented with dried fruit, snacks and other foods, as well as products such as soap and body butter. In later years its crowdfunding material continued to emphasise the connection between simple solar technologies, practical skills and opportunities to earn an income.

Taking solar cooking into schools

Tiloo also tried to introduce solar cooking to a younger generation. A pilot programme launched at the end of 2009 placed solar ovens in seven schools in different parts of The Gambia. The idea was deliberately designed to spread: schools used the equipment, produced solar-cooked goods and, after meeting the programme’s targets, helped pass the idea on.

By May 2010, project manager Muhammed Jarra told The Point that Tiloo was working with ten schools, training pupils to use and care for solar ovens. The project’s annual Solar Day also gave schoolchildren and customers the chance to demonstrate what could be produced with them.

The practical problems were real

The history is more useful if we do not pretend everything worked perfectly. Solar cooking has obvious limitations. It depends on the weather, it works best during daylight, and it asks people to adapt familiar cooking routines.

Tiloo’s own experience showed some of those difficulties. The bakery was disrupted during a particularly heavy rainy season. Training craftsmen to achieve consistent manufacturing standards took time. And although people often liked the idea of solar cooking, buying a cooker was a different matter.

During the 2007–08 project period, a box cooker cost about 4,500 dalasi. The contemporary WISIONS report estimated that this represented roughly one-and-a-half to three months of a normal worker’s salary at the time. That helps explain why an environmentally attractive technology could still be difficult for ordinary households to adopt.

A new centre in Latriya

The project continued to evolve. By 2011 it was operating as Solar Association Tiloo, and later it moved out of the urban area to Latriya. Crowdfunding campaigns in 2016 and 2017 helped establish a carpentry workshop at the new project centre.

That workshop was intended not only to manufacture solar cookers and dryers but also to train young Gambian carpenters. A later campaign funded practical placements for two apprentices, extending the project’s emphasis from renewable-energy equipment into vocational training.

Why Solar Association Tiloo is still worth remembering

Solar Association Tiloo is no longer operating, but that does not make the story redundant. If anything, it makes it more valuable as a historical case study.

For more than a decade, the project explored what could be done with one of The Gambia’s most plentiful natural resources. It manufactured equipment locally, trained craftsmen, worked with schools, experimented with food preservation, ran a bakery and restaurant, and tried to turn renewable energy into something useful in everyday life.

It also demonstrated an important lesson about development projects: a good idea is only the beginning. Cost, local skills, weather, habits, markets and long-term sustainability all matter just as much as the technology itself.

The photographs we have preserved from Tiloo show that history rather better than statistics can: wooden solar ovens standing in the Gambian sun, tunnel dryers full of fruit, a huge parabolic mirror concentrating sunlight onto a cooking pot — and, wonderfully, eggs frying without a gas bottle, electric hob or piece of firewood in sight.

Historical sources and further reading

• WISIONS: Renewable Energy for Food Preparation and Processing – includes a case study of the Solar Project Gambia workshop, bakery and restaurant.
• The Point: Solar Project Tiloo Observes Solar Day – contemporary reporting from May 2010.
• Tiloo’s 2017 workshop and apprenticeship campaign – details of the later project centre at Latriya.

For more first-hand articles about the country, its environment, culture and everyday life, visit our Discover The Gambia hub.