Portable Light
Empower People.
The Portable Light Project enables people in the developing world to create and own energy harvesting textiles, providing the benefits of renewable power as an integral part of everyday life.
Learn More
Portable Light solar kits with locally woven bags.
Photo credit: PL Team.
Map of the Tapajós/ Arapuins region of the Amazon with the 13 focus communities of Luz Portátil Brasil. Hatch marks indicate 3G network spillover zones.
Photo credit: PL Team.
LUZ PORTÁTIL BRASIL
In partnership with the EDP Instituto of Brasil, the Inter-American Development Bank, Fabio Rosa/ IDEAAS and NGO Projecto Saúde e Alegria, the Portable Light Project Brazil is launching a major initiative to bring renewable light and clean energy to 489 families living without access to electricity in communities located along the Amazon’s Tapajós and Arapiuns Extractive Reserve, which is an ecologically sensitive area in the state of Para. The project website, Luz Portátil Brasil, launches August, 2012 at luzportatil.com.br
Luz Portátil Brasil, Phase I provides next generation Portable Light kits which include a flexible photovoltaic panel, a high brightness LED, a control tray with battery and USB 2.0 port for charging cell phones and other devices. With community inputs, the Loop Lantern and the Flex Lantern have been designed in collaboration with Brazilian students at the Pontificia Univercidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro Each lantern folds up to attach to a knapsack, bag or boat, offering a mobile energy infrastructure that enables people to access solar power anywhere on the river or in the forest. Coopa Roca, an internationally recognized women’s creative cooperative in the favela Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, is sewing the textile lanterns using local Brazilian materials. The women of Coopa-Roca have many family ties to the Amazon region and offer a model for start-up sewing groups in Santarem as the project expands.
Luz Portátil Brasil, Phase II Drawing on the embedded opportunism, physical mobility and resourcefulness of Amazon communities that rely on forest knowledge for multiple livelihoods, the goal of Luz Portátil Brasil is to support the development of local sustainable small businesses, educational programs and conservation efforts. After an evaluation process led by the IADB, Luz Portátil Brasil will be presented to the Brazilian Centre for Development of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (CB-Solar), which in collaboration with PUC RS, will identify Brazilian manufacturing partners and launch mass-production of the Portable Light kits in Brazil.
USER PROFILE
Luz Portátil Brasil
Download PDF