Sustainable lighting with Enel and Liter of Light

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By transforming plastic bottles and recycled material into solar-powered lamps, MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has created “Solar Bottles:” an innovative and sustainable solution used by the NGO Liter of Light to bring zero emissions light to disadvantaged communities around the world.

Last December, Enel signed a partnership with Liter of Light at COP21 in Paris, to contribute to an extensive programme launched by the NGO, an organization that operates in over 20 countries. In addition to having installed some 500,000 Solar Bottles, the NGO is teaching local communities how to build their own solar lamps, thus ensuring the project’s full continuity and sustainability.

As part of the partnership with our Group, the Sustainability Division recently promoted a workshop at Enel headquarters in Rome that brought together a group of Enel and Enel Green Power employees. The objective of the day was to teach participants how to build a “solar bottle”, giving them the necessary tools and skills for explaining to others how to create them.

The Liter of Light solar-powered lamp is made using a transparent plastic bottle, water, an electrical circuit made with recycled material, a LED light, a solar panel and a rechargeable lithium battery. During the daytime, the lamp radiates solar light through refraction water of the water. At night, the stored energy keeps the LED lit until dawn.

Our partnership with Liter of Light is yet another example of our Open Power approach to addressing crucial challenges, such as ensuring access to electricity to remote communities – one of the 17 objectives set by the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goals Agenda – a goal to which we have committed with our ENabling Electricity programme.

Liter of Light is not new to our Group. The ONG, which was founded by Italian-Filipino architect Angelo Diaz in 2011, partnered with our Group in 2015 for the We are Energy Campus, an annual initiative that gathered Enel employees’ children from around the world to create Solar Bottles, which were then installed in a small village in Mexico that lacked access to electricity.

From 17 to 20 May 2016, Liter of Light will team up with Enel at the GRI in Amsterdam, and their staff will be present at our stand to demonstrate to visitors how to make a Solar Bottle.