Producing Solar-Powered Lanterns in Kenya

Video: Making Solar-Powered Lanterns from Scrap Metal


September 16, 2010 | CNN

Story about a man in Kenya who employees people to take scrap metal and form it into pieces to create solar powered lanterns. The white LEDs, solar panel and rechargeable batteries are imported from China. Not quite sure how the lamps save lives or what price they are sold for. A guess would be they replace candles or oil lamps that could start fires. Another question is how long do the batteries last? Is there a plan to replace the batteries? If they could put more people to work manufacturing batteries that would be impressive.

Do It Yourself Solar

This video on YouTube has a homeowner describing how he installed a Harbor Freight Solar System. In the video he says the system has been used for more than a year to power two lights in the house. Looking at the Harbor Freight web site they have a solar panel kit for $200 that looks similar to what he is using. A person still needs to get a battery and power inverter.

If I got one of these I think I would try using a DC-DC (direct current) converter to power the computer router/Internet/battery chargers from the DC battery since all these devices use DC instead of AC (alternating current). Also try to find LED lights that use DC instead of converting AC.

Making Your Own Solar Electric Cell

This YouTube video documents a person making a solar cell using copper sheets, a oven, and some salt water. It produces very little electricity and as the author points out the power used to create the cell would take 48,000,000 hours for the cell to regenerate! Learn more at the author's web site: rimstar.org



Here is another video made by a group of students at the University of Notre Dame doing something very similar.