This Crowdfunded Lamp Brings Portable Sunlight to Those Without Electricity

People are always finding new and exciting ways to advance technology — and when their aim isn’t creating phone apps or more realistic pornography, it’s often about helping others. The Chilean team behind the SULI project fall into the second category of helpers. Their solar-powered SULI lamp is designed to bring a quick, easy, renewable light source to people without access to electricity.

SULI estimates 1.5 billion people worldwide are without access to lighting, and use alternatives (such as kerosene lamps, candles, etc.) that are expensive and dangerous. And while solar-powered lights aren’t exactly new technology, an easy, cheap and versatile application for solar lighting is.

With 3D-printed accessories, the SULI lamp has applications in both the developed and developing word. It can be used as a flashlight, a bicycle light, a garden light, a reading lamp or (this is the best one) screwed onto a water bottle and transformed into a device that throws light up to five metres. The light takes up to 12 hours to charge and the charge lasts for around 50 hours. For those of you trying to cut down your electricity bills, this may be the gadget for you.

With two years of development and several grants behind them, the SULI team has finally brought the project to us via Indiegogo. For US$52 plus shipping you can send yourself one lamp, but for $85 you can add a second that gets sent to Haiti, where 3500 people are still living without electricity or access to water since the devastating 2010 earthquake. SULI have already raised US$22,000 but they still need to sell a few hundred more lamps in order to keep production costs low and their altruism train rolling. So get on board with this clever idea, fill your house with SULIs and know that while your household enjoys light after dark, so does a household in Haiti.

Via PSFK.

Image via Suli Lab.