Our Story
From an idea against candles and paraffin lamps to a solar factory at Victoria Yards — told from Johannesburg.
Johannesburg, 2013. In the city's townships, evening light means candles or paraffin lamps — open flames and smoke in crowded rooms. Out of that observation grows a simple idea: a preserving jar, a solar lid, a battery. The jar stands in the sun all day; at night it glows. Safe light for places without electricity, built from what is at hand.
The first Sonnenglas was not a design object. It was a tool. Nobody would have written down, back then, that it would go on to win design awards.
Quiet, meaningful impact over loud, superficial statements.
Today that idea fills a factory: Victoria Yards, Johannesburg. More than 50 people build every Sonnenglas by hand here, in steady, fairly paid jobs — Fair-Trade-certified, in a region where youth unemployment runs above 60 percent.
Whoever starts here learns a trade: soldering, electronics assembly, welding, robotics. 100 percent of profits flow back into the company and its people. And the factory itself runs almost entirely on solar power — a solar product, built with sunshine.
One evening at the lake, one jar full of sun — filmed where our light belongs: outside.
Sun Jar
The jar that started it all: the Sun Jar — still made by hand at Victoria Yards.
View productThe jar became a system: the SOMO light module now moves from the Sun Jar into the Light Carafe, onto the Adventure Mount and back again. It is the world's only solar light certified with the Blue Angel.
We call it our Solar System — Welcome to the Solar System. It began with a candle nobody has to light anymore.
Stay in the light
News from our workshop in Johannesburg — a few times a year, honest and short.
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