Brighter Nights with Sustainable Lights

In Sub-Saharan Africa, night-lights aren't an option. That's because the region is the least electrified part of the world -- as well as one of the poorest. To light the night, many people used kerosene and other flammable, carbon-producing fuels. The outcome: house fires and pollution.

Enter Kansas State University students Tai-Wen Ko, a senior in electrical engineering, and Justin Curry, a freshman in electrical engineering. Their idea was to engineer a solar lantern capable of producing plenty of light on the cheap.

"Solar lanterns are not hard to make," Ko said in an article on the team's work. "You have to find the right parts and have ideas on how to build a circuit. I wanted to make a design that would be easy enough for someone living in Sub-Saharan Africa to build on their own, which would lower the cost because they wouldn't have to have it shipped."

The students built their lantern of just three items, all of them the cheapest available. His materials: a solar panel, a battery and a white light-emitting diode. Their choices reflect a concern for sustainability, cost and amount of light produced. And, of course, solar lanterns are non-polluting.

The students' only concern about their design is the lead included in the battery. In an ideal world, Ko explained, a more environmentally friendly battery would be included in the design -- but today that would mean a higher price tag.

(Photo courtesy Flickr via Creative Commons)