Portable Light

4W FLAPs to Movirtu, based in South Africa

Nigel Waller, PopTech Social Innovation Fellow and founder of Movirtu, will be taking 4-watt FLAP prototypes to Africa to support his initiative ‘to expand the use of mobile communication by the rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia living on less than $2 a day to improve their sustainable livelihoods and help alleviate poverty.’

Local/Global Fabrication

One of the interesting discussions at the FLAP bag launch was how to develop new delivery models for mobile clean energy. Most globally branded soft goods retailers operate with centralized offshore production models. We’re exploring a hybrid approach to manufacturing Portable Light solar textile kits. The flexible photovoltaic materials are produced in Europe at scale, and local business people can order kits and customize the technology using their own skills, inventiveness and locally available materials. Erik Hersman of Ushahidi and his team recently documented this co-creation process with tailors in Ghana and Kenya. We think this is an interesting way to grow locally owned small to mid-size businesses in African cities. These local clean energy businesses could empower people to access renewable light and charge a cell phone, providing connectivity to mobile technologies that are transforming banking, business, education and health care in Africa.

PopTech Day 1 recap at TrackerBlog

At PopTech, the Portable Light team met Janet Ginsburg, writer for the Tracker Blog. We felt that her summary of the first day of the conference has been the best we've seen--check it out here.

Intro to the FLAP: Video by PopTech

PopTech FLAP bag introduction: a collaborative project with Portable Light Project and Timbuk2 from PopTech on Vimeo.

The Rocky Mountain Institute, America’s leading think and do tank for renewable energy, is working with the Portable Light Team to scale the project.