Solar-Powered LED Lighting Brightens Developing Countries

LED is not a stranger to us as they have been around us already for many years. TV screens, LED bulbs for your home, and the back light of phone are all using the LED technology. But when three scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Physics earlier this month started working on blue light-emitting diodes, or LEDs in the 1990s, not many could ever imagine what changes it could bring to the underdeveloped world.

Currently, in developing countries, many families are still unable to be connected to the grid to light up their houses at night because of the poor local infrastructure. But with an LED light powered by a solar panel, they can overcome this issue at very low cost.

According to an interview conducted by NPR News, “Eight or 10 years ago, LEDs were still fairly expensive. But the efficiency of the LED was improving 100 percent a year, and the costs were dropping 50 percent a year. For less than a watt, you could have useful light. In fact, for a 10th of a watt, you could have enough light to go to the bathroom at night without waking your spouse.” And as pointed out by Vox, “One big virtue of LEDs is that they’re roughly 15 times more efficient than regular bulbs – and they keep improving at a remarkable clip.”

Before the market gets ready for the new product, New Vision Renewable Energy, a Christian nonprofit organization based in West Virginia, has started their first step in helping lighting up the underdeveloped countries. It is using old political yard signs-which might go to your trash can after the election– for small solar-powered LED lights and distributing them to developing countries.

According to EagleFordTexas,”New Vision takes the signs – made of Coroplast, a light-weight corrugated plastic – cuts them to size, puts a small solar panel on one side and three strips of stick-on LED lights on the other. The company puts a special type of mirrored film underneath the LED lights to maximize the brightness.”

This action has gained attention and support from some big companies interested in sustainability. “The 3M Company, a multinational corporation based in Minnesota, donated enough mirrored film for about 44,000 lights. Each sign can make six license plate-sized lights. Each light also comes with a small rechargeable battery, like the type that comes on an electric drill.” Currently, the organization is actively teaching young people how to develop their own communities using renewable energy, and has successfully sending out 2,200 lights to 32 different countries, according to NPR news.

Today, most of us are living in such good conditions that most people think it’s unbelievable that as many as 1 out of 5 people in the world today are lacking access to electricity. What the organization is doing is reminding us that everything in our daily life can be reused. Even a seemingly small item could be transformed into something that means a lot to those in poverty.