Easy, solar bulbs for Cebu schools

With the heat of the sun, a plastic soda bottle filled with water  can shine 55 watts of light.

The low-cost  solar bottle bulbs are being proposed to share “a liter of light” in public schools of Cebu province.

Illiac Diaz, chief executive officer of My Shelter Foundation based in Manila, submitted the proposal to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia during his visit to the Capitol on Thursday.

“She (Garcia) was very excited. It’s  something replicable and not something we have to import like solar panels,” said Diaz, the proponent of the “Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)” project.

Diaz together with the Rotary Club of Cebu Fuente installed the first 40 solar bottle bulbs in stalls of Larsian Food Market at Fuente Osmena last week.

“From there, we will take it to public schools and clinic areas that are spending a lot of money for electricity during the daytime when light  could be free,” he said.

The low-cost bulb is made of plastic soda bottles, corrugated sheets and a solution of water and chlorine.

Mounted on the roof,  the bottle protrudes from a hole in the ceiling so  the  upper part of the bottle  absorbs solar energy and the lower part produces light.

The solar bottle bulb  was  developed in 2006 by students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and has been used in poor communities in Mexico and Brazil.

“We will share  the technology and show how  to do it so it can be replicated  in every household that needs it,” Diaz said.

The bulb is an example of  simple and easily replicable technology that meets basic needs in developing communities.

Diaz said they are excited to share the “gift of free light” in the Visayas .