Robert Kaiser walks in with his Sunrizer bag and says "Here is what you need for Africa". This designer bag sports a flexible solar panel and provides USB connections to charge your devices while you carry. Stylish, Waterproof and rugged enough to hold your laptop, mobile phones, music player and charger cables. Love this bag but at €179.00 EUR it's expensive.
Checkout out www.So-fi.com for more solar products.
Growing up in rural India, we experienced severe shortage of electricity. I spent many nights finishing home work by the light of the gas lantern. The lack of electricity adversely effect education and the overall development of the country. The WakaWaka project ('Shine Bright' in Swahili) aims to bring low-cost solar-powered LED lamps to developing countries. The project was successfully funded on Kickstarter crowdfunding site and went into production two weeks later.
A sturdy, highly efficient, sustainable, solar-powered LED lamp. The WakaWaka Light is as much an indispensable product for those in the West, as it is the solution for the 1.3 billion people living without electricity. It is twice as efficient as any other solar lamp on the market and is making a significant impact around the world.
The OLPC Solar charger started working this morning, the 8W solar panel started charging the OLPC without an issue. The power controller which regulates the power input to the OLPC is simple enough to be assembled with locally available electronics.
The OLPC solar charger is developed at BWB Center of Social Innovation. Keep watching this space for more updates on this project.
While traveling I always keep an eye out for innovative home brew green solutions. In Pokhara Nepal the Annapurna Conservation Project (ACAP) is promoting cost effective circular water heating system and solar cookers made out of Nepali Doko baskets wrapped with aluminum foil.
Had an unexpected encounter with Andy Pag's Bio Truck Expedition bus in Pokhara's Fewa lakeside camping grounds. The expedition is traveling around the world in a recycled school bus engine runs on vegetable oil biofuel with very low carbon emission. It collects used vegetable oils from homes and restaurants along the way and features other interesting sustainable technologies as well.
I returned twice to the camping grounds to find the truck locked and empty. Hope to run into the expedition team next time before I leave Pokhara this week.
Few hours ago I heard that my friend Jawahar Patani finished the documentary about Rural Internet Kiosks(RIK) project. I have been helping this project for while now. I hope that this documentary would spread the word about this wonderful initiative.
Please visit www.ruralinternetkiosks.com to learn more about this project.
This short documentary features ICT development in Africa with emphasis on how the Rural Internet Kiosk (RIK) is changing the way rural Africa communicates. The Rural Internet Kiosk is 100% solar powered and is connected to the Internet via Satellite using Astra2Connect VSAT technology.
You can watch the part 1 and part 2 of this documentary on youtube.
