Green Options

What a great idea: incorporating solar energy not only into windows and roofs, but into the building blocks of structures themselves … as in bricks. The solar-powered brick, which has a solar cell embedded inside it, could be used to provide decorative or safety lighting, or even illuminate rural airplane runways, according to San Antonio-based distributor Sunrise Solar. Equally cool: you can order bricks [...]

I went to visit a friend, Cameron Sinclair, who’s doing great work through his organization, Architecture for Humanity. One person he mentioned in our conversation was Sheila Kennedy and her project Portable Light. From the website:

“Portable Light is an interdisciplinary research, design and engineering project to create and implement new models for energy efficient electrical power and lighting. Portable Light applies creative processes and strategic integrative thinking [...]

The people of an impoverished southern African nation have everything to thank the Sun for; because a new revolution is sweeping across rural Malawi, lighting up village communities with cheap solar lamps that almost everybody is now able to afford.

The problem has been that access to modern electricity is but a privilege for the few who can afford it, and the majority are burning kerosene for lighting, a practice known to be expensive, dangerous and harmful to health.

An initiative run by Solar Aid, in partnership with the UK non-profit, TRAID, the project is geared toward protecting the environment and reducing poverty by introducing simple, locally assembled, affordable LED solar lanterns to the poorest communities, providing residents with a cheap alternative to kerosene while also generating employment opportunities for the underprivileged and ill.