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Bucky Fuller Challenge Semi-Finalist: The Portable Light Project

By Rain Noe - March 25, 2011

in Object Culture | Sustainable Design

The phrase "The lights are on, but no one's home" wouldn't make much sense to the two billion people who live on this planet without electricity. For them, once night falls everyone's home and there's no light to be had.

The Portable Light Project aims to rectify this problem, and their solution was good enough to be named a semi-finalist in the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Awards. Since its inception in 2005 the nonprofit PLP has been bringing light, Prometheus-style, to rural communities in Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya with a DIY solar-powered kit. Artisans can weave or sew the kit to indigenous clothing or products using methods already familiar to them.

The portable light project aims to bring electricity, and light, to as many people as it can in as appropriate a way as possible. Its core product is a flexible, durable, very lightweight, thin-film photovoltaic ("PV") cell that can be woven onto textile goods such as bags or clothing. The PV cell stores solar energy in a battery pack that can power a lightweight LED or cell phones or USB devices such as radios or medical devices. Because of the low power requirements of these devices, 5 hours of charging during the day, even in cloudy conditions, can provide up to 14 hours of light (and maybe half or a third that if the light and one or two other devices are used simultaneously)....

The technology itself is not only inspiringly creative; it's highly practical and enabling. Rather than just being a lantern or a radio, it is a way for people and communities in sometimes very remote places (or refugees and migrants on the move) to gain access to light and electric power without using polluting and expensive kerosene lanterns or generators, thereby radically enhancing their lives.

The technology itself embodies comprehensive, integrative design. It is appropriate to the conditions where it is used - rather than being heavy and fragile like traditional glass PV cells, it is extraordinarily light, just 12 oz for an entire kit, rugged and capable of functioning under harsh conditions, and affordable-one kit costs less than US$20. The LED-based light is also impressive. The project team has designed something for the people who use it rather than attempting to bring in western-style lanterns and hoping for adoption. They have made sure the design is adaptable to the needs "on the ground."

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Darrell Thompson

13 years ago

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It is surprising to read that Luddites are alive and well in the world. However, there is a reason Luddites always fail. This is a great project. It is also good for folks in developed countries, especially in disaster areas. I am sure there was a real need for this following Hurricane Katrina and I am equally sure many Japanese would love to have one in the aftermath of their recent disaster.
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akosua ampofo

13 years ago

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In response to Gabriel,

This product is market driven, people don't do things they don't want to do. If a family does not feel it is necessary for their child to stay in school and perform well, and one day get a job that earns a higher income than they (the parents) were able to earn, thus being able to take better care of his own family (the child), provide better health care and such... the family does not need to bother investing or using the light. Not all technology is an imposition. As to the challenges the child must face, studying at night and such, the issue is not to prevent the child from studying in the evening, but rather to look at ways in which the child can achieve a healthy balance between studying, household chores, and playtime.

I think this is a great product, kudos to the Portable Light Project
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Paul Taulien

13 years ago

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http://solarelements.co.za/Solar_Elements/Solar_Lighting.html

This product has been sourced for a local project here in South Africa, for used both here and throughout Africa... Cool stuff!
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Gabriel

13 years ago

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Every time I came across a project like this I feel angry.
I was riding the underground today, and I saw this couple of indigenous people, they looked life they were maried, they looked happy, watching to the rest of the people with some surprise, maybe thinking, why do they need so much electricity?, why do they need expensive clothes and strange shoes?
This kind of projects make me think and ask the same question, do this people need to live like us to be happy?
Why a under age kind need alight to study in the night? is he working all day to support their families?, maybe we need to change the world in a way they do not need to work extra hours, and spend time talking and playing with their families with a candle light!
Living under a candle light is embarrassing? so why people make love under a candle light?
If we try to live like them, waking up at sun rise, and going to sleep at night, talking about a "earth hour" would be totally out of the question, right?
To be a designer is to understand people necessities, NOT creating new ones.
Since the invention of the incandescent light, every time a city became electrified the stars were never seen again.

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