Inflatable solar lantern showcased in Munich
INNOVATIONS
By BiztechAfrica – Jan. 20, 2013, 8:57 a.m.
A new low cost, inflatable solar lantern will be showcased at the Digital-Life-Design conference in Germany next week.
The Luci lantern by MPowerd is designed as a clean and affordable solution to the energy challenge.
The company has also launched a Buy One Give One campaign that sends one Luci to someone living in energy poverty for each Luci purchased.
MPowerd’s Jacques-Philippe Piverger and Jill Van den Brule will attend the conference to shine a light on the dangerous implications of energy poverty around the world. Nearly 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity, the majority of which live in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Another 1.5 billion have irregular access to the grid. This means that nearly half the world’s population lives in virtual darkness and relies on dangerous and costly sources of lighting.
Luci is an inflatable, recyclable, water resistant, bright LED solar lantern with three light settings – dim, bright and emergency flashing. Luci is a task lamp, a diffused lantern, and a collapsible portable light in one. It’s maintenance-free, recharges in the sun and is durable and reliable in extreme conditions. After the initial purchase, lighting is free as Luci needs only to be recharged for 4-5 hours in the sun and then can provide a minimum of 8-12 hours of light. Luci can be hung from a ceiling, providing 15 square feet of light, or carried at night as a lantern.
Luci recently drew international attention at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, where it was identified among the six trends at the exposition by CNN and featured by the popular technology blogs Engadget and Gizmodo. Since its inception, Luci has been featured as an innovation at the Rio+20 Summit, as well as highlighted in the New York Times, Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other news outlets.
