Solar lamps replace toxic kerosene in poorest countries

When the sun goes down over large swathes of the developing world, the 1.3 billion people currently living without access to an electricity connection are plunged into darkness.
According to figures from the International Energy Agency, at least 20% of the planet's inhabitants are still without the simple luxury of a light-switch.
From the shantytowns of Sub-Saharan Africa to the sprawling slums of the Indian sub-continent, night-time brings with it a noxious ritual of candles, gas lamps and open fires.
"Fuel-powered light is dangerous, polluting, expensive and dim," says Dr Evan Mills, founder of the Lumina Project, an initiative that promotes low-carbon alternatives to fuel-based lighting in the developing world.
According to studies conducted by Mills and his colleagues at the Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, this "dirty light" consumes 77 billion liters of fuel worldwide, costing its predominantly impoverished end-users a total of $38 billion annually.
And they don't call it dirty for nothing. If a single kerosene lantern burns for an average of four hours a day it emits over 100kg of CO2 a year, says Mills. "The combustion of fuel for lighting consequently results in 190 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to one-third the total emissions from the UK," he adds.

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