Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Solar lamp - the story of an idea


It was a really clever and simple invention. In 2002, during a long electrical shortage, at Uberaba, São Paulo, Brasil, Mr Alfredo Moser discovered a way to gather sun light in the house through plastic bottles hanging from the roof. The bottle is just refracting sunlight very effectively and produces an equivalent light power compared to a 50/60W lamp. It even works on a rainy day.


Apparently, it was reported on the Globo reporter in 2007, and later picked up by social entrepreneur, Illac Diaz, in the Philippines. There 15,000 solar lamps have already been installed earlier this year and Illac's "MyShelter Foundation" is pushing for a million lamps over 12 months. In packed Manila slums, where many rooms are windowless, the solar lamps have been reported to cut electricity costs by half.

Now, what began as a small-scale effort in a Manila slum, has quickly spread throughout the Philippines and even into impoverished communities as far away as Colombia, India and Vanuatu. Illac puts down this success to a Youtube clip and Facebook.

Diaz, who oversees a permanent staff of just a dozen people, says: "This is all part of us becoming an NGO 2.0 - helping a million people without being a multi-million-dollar foundation."

See this clip from cntv: http://wimp.com/lightenup/

 References:
Wattwatt:the community for individuals interested in electrical energy efficiency Philippine solar light bottles offer hope By Karl Malakunas, AFP