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Solar Tuktuk Rally

A journey from the Netherlands to the Gambia in solar-powered tuktuks. It does two jobs for our projects: it tells their story to people who can help, and it takes us to the projects and people we can learn from.

Why this trip

I didn't come to energy systems from a lecture hall. I came to it wanting to build things that hold up when conditions get hard, for people who actually need them to. The Gambia is where that started for me personally, and it is the destination on this route for that reason, not a random pick on a map. Our core business is developing sustainable energy and community projects, and the Gambia has one in the making: an electric tuktuk pilot, with the business case being developed by Green-Up Gambia. The rally is how that project gets a story, an audience and partners. The plan is to hand the tuktuks over to the pilot on arrival. The bigger question underneath it: what does energy resilience look like when you are standing in it, not modelling it? I do not fully know yet. That is the honest reason to go look.

The route

Six chapters, roughly 7,500 km, about two to two-and-a-half months on the road: Netherlands → Morocco → Western Sahara → Mauritania → Senegal → the Gambia. The waypoints below are the stops already locked in. The day-by-day itinerary is still being finalized.

What counts as “a good project”

The search has a filter, not just a direction. A project earns a stop on this route if it's community-led or community-owned, not infrastructure dropped in from outside with no local hand on the wheel. It has to be turning energy into livelihood, not just service: does this create work and income, or just deliver electrons. It has to be technically honest, willing to show what's actually working and what isn't, not a polished showcase visit. And it has to be open to being documented and shared, because this expedition only works if what's learned goes back out into Field Notes.

What the expedition is for

Two jobs. Storytelling and marketing: every stop becomes a Field Note, photographs and a pin on the live map, published as it happens, so the projects behind the trip have an audience and partners. Knowledge and network: visiting projects shows what works and what fails, and puts us in front of the people already building, which feeds the tools, the Map and the next project. Afterwards a synthesis pulls the whole route's findings together for partners and anyone who wants the short version.

Working with us on this

Good things are rarely built alone. That's especially true of a months-long overland route through places we don't fully control. This trip needs support to happen: vehicle and equipment partners, logistics support, funding for the documentation itself, and local contacts along the route. In return, partners get visibility across every Field Note and map update the expedition produces, early access to what's found, and a direct line into the network of projects and people met along the way.

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