Despite all the advances in technology, the problem of lighting up rural Africa after darkness falls is still very real. It was this thought that inspired South Africa-based Michael Suttner to start developing the Lightie, a solar-powered LED module that can screw into any bottle neck measuring 22mm across -- the worldwide standard.
The patented Lightie prototype was released in South Africa last October, where Suttner entered it into several design and innovation contests -- all of which he went on to win. The Lightie was also shortlisted as a finalist in the international Designboom Awards, but Suttner was not eligible to win as the prize could only go to a yet-to-be-released product.
It took three years of research into the situation for Suttner to get to this, though. "Being on the doorstep to Africa here in South Africa, there is a lot of awareness about how many don't have access to electricity and how many people die each year from paraffin usage," he tells Wired.co.uk. "I realised that the technology was there... I couldn't understand why this problem wasn't being solved, so I decided I wanted to research a little bit more."
During his research Suttner realised that despite there being plenty of solar-powered lights out there and the price being right for the components, the lights weren't reaching the end users in big enough quantities to tackle the lighting problems. It was at this point he realised what he needed to do to differently -- aim to distribute on a mass scale. "I thought if I could solve the distribution problem, I could really solve this problem on a global scale," he says.
The joining of the dots occurred when he bought a bottle of water and it occurred to him how widely bottles were distributed all over the world. He at first studied Coca Cola's distribution model for ways in which he could leverage it, before realising that the answer lay in the bottles themselves. "I just thought if I could make it to look like this," he says, waving a bottle lid around, "and it could clip into a Coke bottle then surely Coke would be interested in helping me distribute because it works with their Coke bottles, which is their biggest byproduct. This was my thinking behind the Lightie." "I've always been a tinkerer, I love taking things apart, I love technology," he says, but adds that he worked with a local industrial designer to develop the prototype. Not only is the Lightie well protected in the waterproof sealed bottle, but Suttner hopes he can distribute the Lightie alongside Coke -- and has already started discussions with the company to this end. He claims the Lightie has similar specs and offers similar light to leading solar-powered lighting on the market now and will cost between $10-13 (£6-8) to the end user.
Plenty of big companies have been in touch with Suttner about working with him on the Lightie but he's currently getting the final prototype organised and trying to finalise costings. After that, he says, "I'd like to sit down with them and see which company can help me realise the dream of solving this worldwide problem". "I hope in the next five years the Lightie will be on the shelf next to Coca Cola, next to paraffin in all these poor countries around the world as an alternative, so somebody can walk in and decide. That's my ultimate goal."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
