This is a terrific product that can be used in the 3rd world, but also camping, and in emergencies. I’d love to use it to read in bed!

THE PORTABLE LIGHT PROJECT
Portable Light is an interdisciplinary research, design and engineering project to create and implement new models for energy efficient electrical power and lighting. Portable Light applies creative processes and strategic integrative thinking to optimize existing semi-conductor technologies and create new applications to serve the large number of people—more than 2 billion—who do not have access to electric light or power. Portable Light is based upon the principle that global needs for technology development are inevitably interconnected. Knowledge, techniques, market solutions and data produced by the project benefit the “third” world and the “first” world where the need to imagine, design and develop energy efficient alternatives to the centralized and increasingly costly electrical grid is becoming ever more important.

The remarkable energy efficiency of high brightness solid state lighting (HBLEDs) means that a bright digital light of 80 lumens per watt (bright enough to read, work and illuminate areas at night) can be produced by a single miniature diode and powered by small areas of flexible photo-voltaic (solar panels). Portable Light expands the value of miniature solid state electronics by putting digital light into a textile medium to create cost effective, completely portable, off-the-grid light engines that can be deployed at a global scale wherever energy efficient electrical power and illumination are needed.

Find out more here http://www.portablelight.org/

I like to pass on what is happening in alternative energy and I picked this up from Skankdragon. Australia has recently drawn-up a design for a revolutionary new solar plant. This plant will generate 200 megawatts of power, and will be able to power 200,000 Australian homes per-year when it’s completed in 2012. EnviroMission Limited is currently constructing the tower in Australia based off a successful prototype-test in Manzanares, Spain.

This solar plant isn’t like any other solar plant; it has a tower. The tower isn’t just for looks though, it does have a function. Everyone knows from basic physics class (or maybe you don’t), that hot air rises. This solar plant is revolutionary because it utilizes the laws of thermodynamics to generate electricity.

The sun heats up the air under the solar collector, forcing the air to rise. When it rises the air turns the turbine and generates electricity. It’s quite a simple idea, but it could alleviate greenhouse gas emissions and generate 100% clean energy.

I just got this beautiful, functional, AND energy saving light! Here it is during the daytime getting charged up. The lantern is constructed of silk-like material and creates a wonderful shimmering silhouette. It comes with dual LED lights, solar panel, AAA rechargeable battery and a stainless hanging handle – so it “weather” our misty coastside.

I purchased the Soji Solar Lantern at The Gardener store in Berkeley (if you haven’t been there, it is fabulous and one of my most favorite stores). It comes in 2 shapes, square and teardrop and in 3 colors – moss, slate and bronze.

Abengoa Solar, a Spanish company, is planning to take 3 square miles of desert southwest of Phoenix and turn them into one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

The company, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend — a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix. There will be enough energy to supply up to 70,000 homes at full capacity.

Unlike most solar energy, the plant  will use the sun’s heat, not its light, to produce power. Gila Bend can get as hot as 120 degrees in the summer. Thousands of giant mirrors will be used to harness the sun’s heat. That will heat up liquids, which will spin turbines — just like coal or other power plants but without the pollution.

Read more by clicking here.