Greenlight planet is a company created last year by one Indian and two American college students from Urbana Champaign, Illinois University. Their idea? To replace the kerosene lamps used in developing countries with solar-powered lamps. Their light-emitting diodes system work for 16 hours after being charged in the sun for a day.
“It is crucial to find a sustainable way to provide electricity to the 1.6 billion people across the planet who don’t have access to it yet”, said Hélène Pelosse, Interim Director-General of IRENA in a recent press release on the contest. The International Renewable Energy Agency’s experts participated in the selection of the best candidates for this award.
“The cost of solar panels has been almost divided by two in the past few years and this is only the beginning. But this prize decrease needs to happen even faster to reach the low income communities and drastically improve their way of life,” added Pelosse.
The first prize of the Solar for All Design Contest is an investment of $250,000 from the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation. The four short listed finalists will be eligible for potential investment from the Solar for All Investment Fund to be launched in 2011.
The “Solar for All” initiative was founded by Canopus Foundation and Ashoka, and is by now supported by a consortium of more than 50 of the world's leading organizations working in the field of energy access for the poor. Along with IRENA, major supporters include the Artemisia Foundation, Avina Stiftung, the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the Elea Foundation, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, the Lemelson Foundation, and the Woodcock Foundation.
For additional information:
____________________________________________________________________
