Via core77: Portable Light is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to bringing light to poor communities living off the grid in third-world nations. What’s particularly fascinating about it is just how the light is portable: it’s woven into fabric. You can fold it, ball it up, or even wear it, and it generates enough light to read or work by.
The remarkable energy efficiency of high brightness solid state lighting (HBLEDs) means that a bright digital light of 80 lumens per watt (bright enough to read, work and illuminate areas at night) can be produced by a single miniature diode and powered by small areas of flexible photo-voltaic (solar panels). Portable Light expands the value of miniature solid state electronics by putting digital light into a textile medium to create cost effective, completely portable, off-the-grid light engines that can be deployed at a global scale wherever energy efficient electrical power and illumination are needed.
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Portable Light initiatives are currently underway in a number of countries. Portable Light in the Sierra Madre will enable Huichol women to harvest electrical power from the sun, own and carry their own light with them, and use it to improve literacy, create better options for education, increase household income and improve family health and nutrition. This pilot project will create immediate, direct and tangible benefits for Huichol women and their families—bringing light to serve a collective community group of more than 300 people in the Huichol Sierra.
You can see much more—how it works, where the initiatives are underway, and how to contribute, at the Portable Light website.
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