Inventid, a company based in Manchester, UK has created a robust low-price solar lamp for $5. The SM100 as the solar lamp is called, is being produced by the Chinese company Yingli and distributed by SolarAid, an international charity that combats poverty and climate change. As almost 600 million people in Africa have no access to electricity, they use expensive and polluting alternatives like kerosene lamps which are also extremely dangerous. But instead of merely giving the solar lamps away, SolarAid sells them to create trade in the economy. This will also empower the people to help themselves. The light of SM100 will last up to eight hours, when fully charged and also allows you to charge your mobile phone. One major problem while distributing the lamps is that some companies collect taxes on solar lights. Jeremy Leggett, founding director of SolarAid, thinks this is “very short-sighted because the price has to be passed on to the consumer, meaning fewer lights will be sold, meaning reductions in the cash freed up by savings on the kerosene which is no longer needed”. In his mind, the savings that would be made not needing kerosene would help the government’s build a more healthy economy than any tax raise could.
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