One quarter of the world ‘s population is deprived of electricity. Energy consumption is extremely vital. Electricity is unaffordable for a major chunk of people. And under these circumstances, what could be more welcome than an alternative cheap method of using natural resources to create light?
Alfredo Moser did exactly that. There was a series of blackouts in his neighborhood in Brazil that led Moser to create an alternative form of generating light.
Moser used a plastic bottle filled with water, which was hung from the roof. It acted as a light refracting device, thus illuminating the whole space with artificial light which is about 40W to 60 W in power.
The entire device was made with recycled plastic bottle, some water and a tiny amount of bleach, making it extremely cost effective. Moser took the initiative to install this light at his neighbor's homes. Later, Myshelter Foundation took the initiative to spread this artificial light mechanism in Philippines, where a huge part of the population live below the poverty line and thus cannot afford electricity.
From there it spread to about a dozen of developing/underdeveloped countries. Myshelter estimates that by the beginning of 2014, more than a million people across the world will have this artificial bottle lights.