The University of Toronto’s (U of T) Impact Centre has begun developing a compact solar lamp that will be used in areas that are without electricity in the Philippines.
According to Emanuel Istrate, the academic coordinator at U of T, because the Philippines is so close to the tropics, it gets dark around 6 p.m., which gives them around 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
“How much more could students learn if they had light? How much more productive would a mother be who needs to cook? Right now everything has to stop at 6 p.m. and it doesn’t have to be like that,” said Istrate, who has been helping manage the production of the invention along with professor Cynthia Goh, who came up with the initial idea for the lamp.
Istrate said the invention is a solar lamp containing a solar panel and battery, meaning during the day the battery is charged by the sun and then can be turned on to provide light at night.
“We don’t want just a flashlight—those things exist. You have a flashlight, you take it out and put it in the front yard during the day, at night you bring it in, but then somebody has stolen it or somebody wanted to borrow it . . . We want something that is installed in the house fairly permanently—kind of like you and I use electricity. You walk in, flip the switch, and there’s light,” he said.
Istrate said for this to be possible, the lamp would have to be mounted up high or hung from the ceiling so a wire can attach the solar panel on the roof to the lamp inside the house. He said their aim is to sell the lamp for around $24.
According to Istrate, one of their main challenges is to make the product cost-effective. The price is still steep for those living in poverty in the Philippines, so they plan to create a system of monthly payments rather than expect people to pay the cost in full right away.
Istrate added the involvement of a local business person will be crucial.
“Somebody has to install it, and if it breaks for some reason there needs to be somebody who can do small repairs on the spot. This business person has to be anchored in the community—we don’t want somebody who has never been in a village with no electricity to just come in and say, ‘Hey here’s a solution for you guys, I’m selling it to you and then I’m leaving again.’”
Istrate said two or three prototypes of the lamp will be sent to the Philippines sometime in December, and the feedback from the users will be used to make further improvements to the invention before it is mass produced.
“There are still millions and millions of people who don’t have electricity today and that’s something that should concern everybody,” Istrate said. “This year is the international year of light, and we want to help celebrate that by bringing light to the world.”
