Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic, devised a way to provide light inside during the day using only plastic bottles, water, and bleach. Soon one million homes in impoverished areas will be using it. He makes no money from it but is happy it helped so many.
Fill a clean plastic bottle with water and a tiny amount of bleach, seal it with a black top, poke it through a corrugated tin roof and seal it with resin. The sun’s rays will refract through it, with each bottle producing 40-60 watts.
“There was one man who installed the lights and within a month he had saved enough to pay for the essential things for his child, who was about to be born. Can you imagine?” he says.
The idea has spread worldwide, as this mini-documentary from the Philippines, where electricity is very expensive, shows.