Liter of Light – Fighting Energy Poverty by the Simplest Way, With a Plastic Bottle

Today 1.3 billion people do not have access to energy or a fifth of humanity. When facing this situation people rely on expensive and dangerous alternative solutions such as firewood, kerosene lamps, or fuel generators. These alternatives are both harmful to the environment and to people’s health.  

Millions of people, mostly children, die every year due to indoor pollution. There is a close relationship between development and access to energy. Poverty energy is a huge obstacle towards access to both education and health.  

Images credit: Liter of Light

How do you make affordable, reliable and clean energy available for the bottom of the pyramid?   

Illac Diaz, founder of Liter of Light, thought of a solution where the materials could be found locally, wherever you are: plastic bottles. Old plastic bottle filled with water and chlorine, you get a 55-watt solar bulb that refracts sunlight!  

Thanks to simple technology and solar panel, you can also light up a room or streets at night!   

Images source: Indiegogo  

“We are convinced that the best way to fight against energy poverty in the world is to empower the communities through innovative and sustainable solutions ” – Illac Diaz.  

Liter of Light is a global, grassroots movement committed to providing affordable, sustainable solar light to people with limited or no access to electricity.   

Images credit: Liter of Light  

Through a network of partnerships around the world, Liter of Light volunteers teach marginalized communities how to use recycled plastic bottles and locally sourced materials to illuminate their homes, businesses and streets.   

Liter of Light has installed more than 350,000 bottle lights in more than 15 countries and taught green skills to empower grassroots entrepreneurs at every stop.   

Liter of Light’s open source technology has been recognized by the UN and adopted for use in some UNHCR camps. The movement Liter of Light has been awarded for its innovations and sustainable solutions tackling global warming and poverty.   

The Liter of Light is both a day and night solution that provides passive daylight as well as charged evening solar lights such as lanterns, house lights, and streetlights through local skills building and sourcing electronic parts for building the products at the base of the pyramid instead of merely retailing imported finished products.  

It has been acknowledged by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for its initiatives at the conference in 2011 at Durban, South Africa and it has also been honoured with the ZAYED Future Energy Prize in January 2015. It is also a winner of the 2014-2015 World Habitat Award.   

Illac Diaz also founded My Shelter Foundation, based in the Philippines. MyShelter Foundation aims to create affordable and replicable technologies to empower grassroots entrepreneurs to generate wealth through sustainable solutions to move out of poverty.   

Presently, the fund raising campaign of Liter of Light is live at Indiegogo for a goal of $ 27,000. The money will be used for the project in Ivory Coast to buy the required materials to build the lighting systems, finance human and material logistic, install the lighting systems at people’s homes and in the streets.  

Besides reducing and reusing plastic waste, this lighting systems use renewable energy for better environmental value and social impact.  

You can support this social sustainable solution to eradicate energy poverty from the world by clicking their campaign page at Indiegogo.