Rockefeller, World Bank Back Solar to Boost African Farm Output

Nonprofits backed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank have won tens of millions of dollars to boost the productivity of African farmers using an array of solar-power devices.

Solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerators, water pumps and grain mills are being rolled out across six African nations — Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo — through a program managed by Clasp, a Washington DC-based non-profit focused on energy efficiency.