World-wide, more than half of all households have no access to electricity. Unfortunately, even in the foreseeable future, poorer countries will not be able to build up or extend their nation-wide power lines to meet this need. Every evening in the developing countries, hundreds of millions of homes are forced to use kerosene lanterns for lighting.

In the developing countries, solar lanterns are the only practicable solution to ensure a future supply of lighting. The SOLUX concept uses regenerative solar-energy and fulfills the demand for a sustainable economy.

Using solar energy will not only improve the quality of lighting, but it will also prevent the burning of huge amounts of fossil fuels.

Each solar-lantern will save 35 liters of kerosene per year. Imagine, in Africa alone, approximately 1,5 million tons of kerosene are consumed each year. In some countries, the cost of kerosene is already the single largest item on their foreign exchange budget.

The Situation in Developing Countries

In tropical countries darkness begins around 6 p.m. and, with the more agreeable evening temperatures, this time of day can be a time of increased activity. The transition to solar lanterns will allow people to use their evening hours more effectively for both household and commercial activities. In the area of education, improved lighting will make a significant impact.

In third world countries, where kerosene is expensive, the solar lanterns can pay for themselves in a very short period of time. Furthermore, the many accidents, fires and generally unhealthy side effects of kerosene lamps can be avoided.

The SOLUX Concept

With the SOLUX concept, Ludwig Bölkow Foundations has developed a program in which the developing countries are involved as partners. As far as possible, the manufacture, maintenance and sale of the SOLUX lanterns is managed by our partners in specially equipped workshops.

This concept not only ensures that people in poorer countries will be able to buy lanterns at reasonable prices (due to the low labor costs), but that they will also be able to manufacture, sell and maintain these lanterns on their own.

The SOLUX program presents a new method of work-sharing between North and South, a method that could act as the future model for North-South co-operation. Here, only the high-technology components and materials are imported from industrialized countries, the developing countries assemble these components on-site with locally produced parts.

A Solar Lantern System for the Third World

The lanterns have been designed for daily use in the third world and, as we continue to gain experience, the products are constantly improved.

In contrast to other products manufactured by industrialized countries, from the outset we have paid special attention to ensure that the lanterns could be easily assembled by trained personnel using the simple tools available in third world countries. For us, job creation and the transfer of know-how are as important as providing efficient solar lanterns.

High priority was given to the service life of the solar lanterns. Durability, even under difficult tropical conditions, and rough handling, were of major importance. SOLUX lanterns are robust, water resistant and shock proof.

The SOLUX program from the Ludwig Bölkow Foundation was founded together with numerous national and international religious and charitable organizations.