The Goal

In addition to providing solar lighting systems, the SOLUX project focuses on developing inexpensive assembly methods that can be easily implemented in third world countries, as well as on transferring manufacturing and maintenance know-how.

To help establish workshops in southern countries (see also "projects") the Ludwig-Bölkow-Foundation supplies:

Prefabrication and assembly tools


Parts for lanterns and panels


Know-how for the workshop employees

Rooms, personnel , equipment

A workshop should be between 20 to 30 m² in size, with clean, well lighted rooms. Electricity is useful for operating a drilling machine and a soldering gun. Where electricity is not available, a manually driven drilling machine and a 12-V solar-panel with a 12-Volt soldering gun are needed.

The number of staff will depend on the number of lanterns that will be produced. The suggested workshop size will support 10 persons, working in parallel. The assembly of a complete solar-lantern-system requires 5 work-hours.

Putting into operation

Getting a workshop up and running in the third world is normally done by a trainer from the “Senior Expert Service” (SES), which is a society of retired experts who assist in projects in developing countries.

The senior experts used for setting up SOLUX-workshops, are trained on all aspects of production in our Dresden factory.

Unless travel costs can be covered by the workshop itself, the SES will cover this expense. The client in the third world is expected to provide living accommodations, food and pocket money. Approximately 3 weeks is required to train between 3 to 5 coworkers.