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Work category These adaptable solar textile kits enable people with no access to electricity to use traditional weaving and sewing techniques to create clothing, blankets, and bags that harvest energy from sunlight. Weighing only 340 grams, a 4-watt solar textile can easily be carried and charges in 3 hours, corresponding to 8 hours of light.
Folded in an upright position, the solar textile is self-supporting and can be hung from a ceiling or wall to light up spaces. “Our design improves the lives of poor and traditional people by providing the means to co-create and own energy-harvesting textiles as an integral part of daily life process that creates jobs and promotes clean energy ownership. Inter-related benefits flow from the idea of a flexible, portable, lightweight solar textile as a versatile material for clean energy. Solar textile kits can be scaled to meet global needs in an affordable process with 40% lower carbon emissions than glass-based solar panels and reduced fuel for transportation.
In Mexico, Portable Light in traditional woven bags enables women weavers to increase family incomes, providing access to micro-loans. In Nicaragua, Portable Light in a locally made pack enables villagers to have light for community education and work at night as conservationists protecting turtle nests. In South Africa, tuberculosis/HIV patients can use Portable Light in a blanket to generate power for their families as they are cured by exposure to sunlight. The ability to charge cell phones with Portable Light enables people to benefit from connectivity to mobile technology that is transforming health care, business, and education in the developing world. Renewable light extends useful time at night, creating unprecedented opportunities to study and work to improve household incomes. Family health is improved by reducing the need to burn fuels for light, reducing deforestation, and kin can link solar textiles in a clean energy network for community projects.” Designed by:
Patricia Gruits; Sheila Kennedy; Sloan Kulper; Jason O'Mara; Casey Smith; Heather Micka-Smith; Charles Garcia, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Produced by:
Batch manufacturing by L-Tronics, Inc. USA.
Partners: NGO Centro Huichol, Sierra Madre, Mexico; Susana Valadez (Centro Huichol director);
Dr. Stacy Schafer (Chair Department of Anthropology, UC Chico, CA); Miguel Carrillo (Wixrarika community leader); Estella Hernandez (Wixrarika community leader); Women weavers of Sierra Madre region of San Andreas.
Additional credits:
iTEACH Team: Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa; Zinny Thabethe (AIDS activist); Dr. Krista Dong (iTeach team leader); Edendale Hospital/MGH (team leader); Gugu Mofokeng, (team manager); Paso Pacifico (NGO); Paso Del Istmo Conservation Team, Nicaragua; Dr. Sarah Otterstrom (Paso Pacifico, executive director). Sponsors:
Rocky Mountain Institute, Colorado, USA; ArtVenture, Singapore; Rose Family Foundation, New York, USA; Massachusetts
General Hospital, Massachusetts, USA; Edendale Hospital, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa; Applied Materials, Inc., California, USA;
Global Cleantech Capital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. http://www.portablelight.org |
