Our Story

A look back to 2019, when Barnaby and Samuel met for the first time. Fresh out of university, they wanted to share their knowledge about renewable energy with people from rural communities where unreliable energy held back development.

After graduating from the University of Exeter, Barnaby and fellow students connected with Samuel Yeboah and other students from the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana to deliver a 4-week training programme in renewable energy at a rural community centre.

Since then, Dream Renewables has grown organically. People we trained in 2019 began getting in touch with ideas for how solar power could help their communities, and other schools became interested in the training we deliver. So we worked with our trainees to turn these ideas into reality, for example by working with Bright Mensah to install solar power for his local school. This approach worked so well because the project ideas were rooted in the communities we served, and every project had a local champion who drove it forward. This operating model, which developed organically, then became our formal approach for all projects.

Dream Renewables operated as a project of Dream Big Ghana Foundation until 2023, when we set up as a non-profit organisation in Ghana. We now deliver training across Ghana for schools, universities, and community centres. We have worked with communities to install life-changing solar power systems for an off-grid school, rural health clinics, and smallholding farms.

Barnaby and Samuel, who together delivered the first Dream Renewables training programme as fresh-faced students in 2019, are now the two Operational Directors of Dream Renewables. They are supported by a board of volunteer directors with experience spanning engineering, academia, education, CSO management, and governance.

We still work closely with Dream Big Ghana Foundation, which has provided wide-ranging support to help set up our organisation and establish sound governance, processes, and policies. Dream Big Ghana Foundation also financially supports many of our projects and helps us to collect charitable donations from the UK. Find out more about Dream Big Ghana Foundation and our other partners below.