Lighting up Rural India

Sept. 10, 2009 - PRLog -- Over a billion people in this world, even today, lack access to electricity. Several of these reside in rural India, for them life comes to a standstill upon dusk. The remote villages deprived of electricity are forced to use harmful elements of lighting such as kerosene, wood etc to sustain their daily routine post sunset. In today’s time, when the world is waking to the issues of global warming, these villagers are not left with a choice but to add to the CO2 levels. SolarCraft Solar lanterns are a boon to such households. SolarCraft Solar Lantern is designed to offer the rural India a ray of hope. Ideal for children to read and write, provide light for farmers to go about their daily rituals after sunset, light for women to brighten up their dwellings. SolarCraft Solar Lanterns also suffice the urban need of emergency lighting, decorative outdoor lighting and their use as night lamps. It's easy to charge the SolarCraft Solar Lanterns, just place them under Sunlight - no hassle of maintaining a separate solar panel, no wiring, no need to visit a charging station. It lights more than a kerosene lamp and leaves no carbon emissions. These lanterns are also suitable for the city dwellings as they help reduce consumption of electricity by making the light available for purposes such as reading, night lamp, decoration and so on.
Saurabh Bhandari, CEO illusions4real says the SolarCraft Solar Lanterns are designed in a way to make people friendly with easy to use energy saving products. These lanterns come at extremely affordable prices to the rural people in form of various kinds of ‘Lighting up Rural India’ donation projects supported by social groups and organizations. He says, the lanterns not only extend the working day in rural areas they also help eradicate several fire accidents and will help improve the standard of living of the rural people.
Early this June, illusions4real also donated a handful of SolarCraft Solar Lanterns to the India Vision Foundation, New Delhi. These solar lanterns were designed and developed early this year, but in a short span of time they have attracted attention of several social groups such as the Rotary Club of Abu Road and the likes of it.
Ideal for reading, writing, repair work, emergency lighting, cooking, night safety, security lighting, camping etc, the lantern comes with a low and high illumination adjustment switch.
This lantern is a true environment friendly lighting solution, in that; it does not use CFL. The lanterns come with LED lights, environment friendly lights that leave no carbon emissions. The Light Emitting Diode is a highly durable conductor having a life of over 50,000 hours and uses no mercury. LED’s consume almost 60% less power than various other sources of light, and thus a combination of Solar + LED comes to be a super hit energy saving solutions for people.

The Lighting up Rural India project:
Saurabh Bhandari a young entrepreneur from Jaipur had a vision to bring light to the people residing in Indian villages which led to the establishment of illusions4real, company that offers energy saving solutions by means of lighting, water heating etc.
A simple and easy to execute project, rural India’s well-wishers need to source the SolarCraft Solar Lanterns and provide them to the needy villagers. Along with household lighting the project also focuses on rural development where societies, corporate can source solar street lights to light up public areas in the villages. At one end SolarCraft is bringing light in the rural household and the other mission of the project is to bring together funding to light up villages and make rural lives secure in the dark.
Organizations simply need to source lanterns from illusions4real and provide them to the villagers at a zero or nominal price as they wish to design the project. While some rural development organizations can think of investing in solar street lighting and have the Solar LED street lights placed in the villages at common points such as hospitals, night schools, village roads etc.

Readers may visit www.solarenergysolutions.co.in to know more about the solar lantern.

Some notes about the benefits of SolarCraft Solar Lights (Lanterns and Street Lights):
Extends the Working day in rural areas
On average it is dark by 6:30 year round. Solar Lighting allows rural families to extend their workday into the evening hours. Many villages where solar lights are installed see a increase in their economic activitiy levels. Installing Solar lights in villages allows businesses to operate during the evening. Solar electricity helps promote local enterprises as small shops and village markets can use the systems to provide lighting to operate during the evening.
Improves Health issues
Fumes from kerosene lamps in poorly ventilated houses are a serious health problem in much of the world where electric light is unavailable. The World Bank estimates that 780 million women and children breathing kerosene fumes inhale the equivalent of smoke from 2 packs of cigarettes a day. By the use of Solar Lanterns these issues are resolved.
Stems Urban Migration
Improving the quality of life through solar lighting at the rural household and village level helps stem migration to mega-cities. Also, studies have shown a direct correlation between the availability of proper light and lower birth rates in some studies.
Improves Fire-Reduction
Kerosene lamps are a serious fire hazard in the developing world, killing and maiming tens of thousands of people each year. Kerosene, diesel fuel and gasoline stored for lamps and small generators are also a safety threat, whereas solar electric light comes as the safest measure for all.
Improves Literacy rate
Solar light improves literacy, because people can read after dark more easily than they can by candle or lamp light. School work improves and eye sight is safeguarded when children study by solar powered light. With the advent of television and radio, people previously cut off from electronic information, education, and entertainment can become part of the modern world without leaving home.
Saves Energy
Solar electricity for the Third World is clearly the most effective energy conservation program because it conserves costly conventional power for urban areas, town market centers, and industrial and commercial uses, leaving decentralized PV-generated power to provide the lighting and basic electrical needs of the majority of the developing world's rural populations.
Reduces Maintenance
Use of a solar lamps rather than gensets or kerosene lamps reduces the time and expense of refueling and maintenance. Kerosene lamps and diesel generators must be filled several times per day. In rural areas, purchasing and transporting of kerosene or diesel fuel is often both difficult and expensive. Diesel generators require periodic maintenance and have a short lifespan. Car batteries, used to power TVs must often be transported miles for recharging. They require no fuel, and will last for several years with minimal servicing.
Reduces local air pollution
Use of solar systems decreases the amount of local air pollution. With a decrease in the amount of kerosene used for lighting, there is a corresponding reduction in the amount of local pollution produced. Solar rural lighting also decreases the amount of electricity needed from small diesel generators.
Offsets greenhouse gases
Photovoltaic systems produce electric power with no carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Carbon emission offset is calculated at approximately 6 tons of CO2 over the twenty-year life of one PV system.
www.illusions4real.com

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illusions4real is a energy saving solutions provider offering SolarMAxx solar water heating, SolarCraft solar lighting and LEDvantage LED lighting solutions with a vision to promote green living.