Little sun:a means to end energy poverty

The Ethiopian herald  6/23/12
By zemene yohannes

Our planet’s biggest challenge lies on the need for a reliable energy source. The fast growth appetite of nations has resulted in  further demand for reliable energy source. For this reason, adhering to eco-friendly energy sources like that of solar for household expenditure has become the best option among these fast growing economies of the world. Though solar energy is a reliable one, the high rocketed cost of the technology has made it hard to extract. The cost of solar panels is more costly than one would imagine since its invention. 
 

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The World Economic Forum on Africa stressed many points on energy crisis concerning sub-Saharan Africa. in one of its interactive session the forum has pointed out that the number of people lacking access to electricity under sub-Saharan Africa is expected to surge to almost by 700 million by 2030. Hence, more is expected from the public and private sector to accelerate access to safe, reliable and affordable energy.

Most researchers come up with a common consensus on the fact that scaling up  renewable  and innovative ways of   energy sources are  dependable  for rural energy demands. What an artist and his colleague engineer have done is a good example in this respect.

“Ethiopia’s long sunny season is the best energy source option”, Says an artist Olafur Eliasson when introducing his new innovation in collaboration with his colleague and co-innovator Fredrick Ottensen. Little Sun, a small solar-powered light, was launched at the World Economic Forum, that took place in Addis Ababa, as part of the Forum’s focus on how art can contribute to change the world. Their innovation is named as little sun depicting the features of a sun flower and with a small solar panel round its back connected with energy control parts circling the light bulb. The light’s durable, versatile sun-like design utilizes a mono-crystalline solar module. When it is charged for four consecutive hours in the sunlight, little sun will yield five hours of bright light-emitting diode (LED  illumination)  The project has developed an affordable solar-powered light to satisfy the urgent human need for off-grid lighting and to promote economic growth in regions of the world where electricity is not available, reliable, affordable, or sustainable.

It was a year ago at one of the nights in Eliasson’s compound where the two innovators come up with the idea of finding a solution for the one of the  worlds’ critical problem,reliable energy, when discussing many matters. “I asked myself and Ottensen that why could not we extend the day?” remembers Eliasson how they finally decided to create a simple solution for the biggest problem. By combining Eliasson’s artistic talent and Ottensen’s engineering skills. Finally born from  a simple comes a real world material  which is promising to solve energy problems around the globe. In fact they also remember the major challenges faced during the development of the  idea. “Every single electric component should meet the world’s normal engineering standard and resist the temperature above 25 degree Centigrade. This is from the perspectives of creating a well-fitting material to the tropical region.” said Eliasson. Another problem still the project facing is the raw material. “The electronics is from Denmark the Plastic parts are from china and the rest part is from Germany.” Said Ottensen to tell how difficult is to find the whole raw material from one source but they are now to find ways to produce even the raw materials locally in the area where they would be marketing with the help of retailers. “Our key aspiration is to produce it in Africa.” added, Ottensen.

Current studies has shown that people living off the electrical grid pay 300 times more for light than people who have access to electricity and incandescent light bulbs. With a solar –powered light bulb like little sun one can deliver 10 times more light with a half the cost of using a common single-wick kerosene lamp. Converting four hours of natural light into five hours of usable light, the little sun is ready to serve for any kind of lighting purpose at night. The UNEP report stressed that inhaling the emissions of kerosene is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes in a single day. This drives people to reconsider how life sustaining systems function and find a more reliable solution at a large reach. The little sun project might be a good example in showing a human’s strive to end energy poverty.

The little sun project is currently testing the market situations in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Studying more on the value of the product at these countries in consideration of what the cost and the profit would be. Additionally, they are working with the Nigerian Brand developer company to start business in West Africa. The project is considered as one that brings multilateral benefit for the supply chain: creating business opportunities in off-grid regions that generate profits for everyone involved, in all stages of production, distribution, retail and use. The little sun project will be presented in London, this summer in a specially created exhibition as part of the London 2012 Festival, the cultural program that accompanies the  London 2012 games.

The ambition that drive these young men to find a solution for a world wide problem is laudable and an inspirational act for African youth in building strong nations of the continent.

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