Light Up The World Foundation :: TECHNOLOGY & APPLICATIONS

In its work LUTW is addressing socio-economic and environmental problems on both a regional and global scale. The beneficiaries are the most poor of the world with no access to adequate lighting. The benefit of WLED lighting technology becomes most evident with significantly improved living conditions, enhanced safety and health conditions, improved environment, ability to read and study after sundown and operate cottage industry by night.

Health & Safety
The effects of fuel-based lighting are serious and debilitating for the developing world. Being a primary lighting fuel, kerosene causes heavy local and indoor air pollution resulting in illnesses and death. Acute respiratory infections such as influenza and pneumonia kill nearly 2 million children in developing nations each year. (1)

Also, kerosene and candles are responsible for countless fire catastrophes every year. In India alone, 2.5 million people (350,000 of them children) suffer severe burns each year, primarily due to overturned kerosene lamps. Each year, many homes burn to the ground when a lamp is toppled. (2)

Safe, reliable and near permanent WLED lighting provided by LUTW reduces air pollution in the home enhancing safety and improving health conditions. Each village where kerosene lamps were replaced with LUTW systems has reported significant improvements of air quality in their homes. Mobile WLED lighting has also allowed safe field access after dark (irrigation needs, elephant/human conflict etc.).

Local Business Opportunities
Microenterprise development is a fundamental component of LUTW’s philosophy and approach. Conventional project delivery combined with a local business start-up meets the twin demands of reaching a very poor segment of the population while simultaneously reinforcing entrepreneurship as one of the most effective and sustainable forms of local development. Through this approach LUTW ensures that installation, maintenance and support services continue to replicate after the initial projects have seeded the technology. LUTW does not own any of these companies but will assist in their startup, development of expertise and sustainability.

Pico Power Nepal (PPN) is a successful example of this strategy. PPN operates as an independent Social Enterprise that enhances income for the family operators and presently provides full-time employment for three technicians. Community members benefit as they can purchase lighting systems and receive installation and warranty services at a price that typically has a payback period of much less than 2 years when compared to substandard and unhealthy fuel sources such as kerosene. There is reason to believe that this more holistic approach is the model for the developing world to follow.

Economic Development & Poverty Reduction
Kerosene and other non-electric sources of light used in the developing countries are expensive and inefficient. A poor rural family in the developing world, pays the equivalent (over USD $100 per year in many cases) of what a family from the North pays for lighting services in order to receive only 0.2% of the light. LUTW is providing its systems at social price negotiated with the component suppliers. The long life of WLEDs and low power requirements results in extremely low ongoing maintenance costs. Cumulative savings from kerosene replacement significantly bolsters disposable incomes. Lighting also facilitates the establishment of indoor and evening cottage industry helping people earn a modest living.

By promoting the use of renewable energy LUTW is helping to divert national funds away from the consumption of fossil fuels. On a larger scale the global household-sector use of fuel-based lighting is responsible for annual energy consumption of 96 billion liters of kerosene. This equates to 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, comparable to the total production of Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, or Libya. (3) Energy costs divert money away from food, health services, housing and other basic needs in poor countries. Moreover, for a country like Nepal that spends one third of its GDP on imported kerosene and distribution subsidies, fluctuations in world energy markets affects the countries holding of valuable foreign currency. The opportunity in economic terms of moving away from a fossil fuel imports is enormous and frees up foreign exchange for national programs.

Education & Literacy
Light from kerosene lamps is poor and inefficient (only 2 to 4 lumens). Poor lighting affects literacy and education. The light from kerosene lamps is so poor that children can only see their schoolbooks if they are almost on top of the flame, directly inhaling even more of the toxic smoke. (4) Heat fracture and spillage is common and results in countless injuries to children when studying.

The ability to read and study after sundown has an enormous impact on the lives of those with little opportunity. Not the least of these benefits is the improvement in education of children and women in areas where poverty and illiteracy walk hand in hand. Education leads to people centered development – a knowledgeable population that can strive for better lives.

Equality
The San Jose Technology Museum has recognized LUTW with the Knight Ridder Equality award for its work in advancing and advocating the use of SSL for providing a small solution to large problems of inequality.

In many developing countries, women must assume the bulk of the productive, reproductive and community organization roles but have limited political power and social status. Adding to their responsibility, for example, Nepalese women spend several hours a day scouring the landscape for scarce firewood. Others trek for 2-7 days to reach the nearest kerosene depot only to find that no fuel is available or it is too expensive. (5) LUTW works to address these issues by using solid state lighting as a community development tool in areas where inequality, poverty, and illiteracy are a complex problem.

Environmental Savings
By replacing the use of dry-cell batteries with ultra efficient WLEDs running off rechargeable sealed batteries, fewer dry-cell batteries are disposed. This reduces the release of heavy metals into the local environment. In Nepal, a country with over 24 million people, literally hundreds of millions of non-rechargeable batteries are discarded directly into the environment each year. The resulting pollution to streams, groundwater and fields threatens to be immense. It has been reported that in LUTW’s original project in Nepal, the use of dry cell batteries had practically stopped.

Similarly, the installation of WLEDs reduces the demand for fire-wood diminishing negative impacts on landscapes, such as deforestation and desertification. According to the United Nations the primary cause of habitat destruction and run-off water pollution is the denudation of the landscape by the rural poor in a desperate search for scarce firewood. By various estimates from the Schumacher Institute and other development organizations, 60%-90% of firewood and fuel use is for lighting purposes.

Furthermore, LUTW is most active in remote rural areas that are ecologically sensitive. In 2003 LUTW’s lighting systems helped in the preservation of the biologically diverse Knuckles Range, a UNESCO world heritage site and wildlife preserve in Sri Lanka. Protection regulations preclude the inhabitants from being connected to the electrical grid. Together with partners, LUTW has provided leading edge lighting technology to many villages. LUTW has committed to lamping the remaining villages in the Knuckles in 2004 and has commissioned a study to analyze the social impacts of its technology and to quantify the reduction of kerosene consumption and deforestation.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the developing world comes from dirty, hazardous and expensive fuel based sources for lighting. LBNL states explicitly that the only real way to meet the increasing lighting energy demands is to replace fuel based lighting with solid state lighting systems and recognizes LUTW as the pioneering organization in this effort.

Fuel-based lighting in the developing world is a source of 244 Million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere each year, or 58% of the CO2 emissions from residential electric lighting. (6) WLED lighting powered by renewable energy replaces fuel-based lighting thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. LUTW estimates that by replacing kerosene lamps with modern lighting technology it reduces approximately 130 kg per household. By the end of 2005, LUTW intends to reach one million lives thus reducing over 26, 000 tons of carbon-emissions per year. (7)