Come to think of it – MoonLight over Cambodia

Delft Integraal 2008-4

“At the Design Week event in Eindhoven, four industrial design students received the Toon van Tuijl Design Award for their MoonLight solar-powered lamp.”

Many families in Cambodia do not have access to electricity. They still live in the dark when night falls or light their homes using a can filled with kerosene. “That’s very dangerous. If it falls it could set the often wooden house on fire. The kerosene is also very bad for their health,” says industrial designer, Doortje van de Wouw, who currently works at Philips in Drachten.

Two years ago she and three other students designed the solar lamp, MoonLight, as an alternative for the kerosene light. “We went to Cambodia to see how the people lived. We found out that they prefer to use the lamp in different rooms and even take it outside; therefore, we attached a cord to the lamp, so they could hang it on a nail in the wall and carry it around their neck.”

The lamp is charged by attaching it, via a cord, from inside the home to a small solar panel on the outside of the house. “They therefore do not have to place their lamp outside, as it’s a very valuable object to them.”

So far Kamworks, the company the students designed the lamp for, has sold a couple of thousand MoonLights. “We aim to sell more than 50,000,” says Jeroen Verschelling (Kamworks) on the phone from Cambodia. “By selling more we could reduce our production costs, but in order to do so we have to make the lamps cheaper. Currently the lamp costs 25 dollars, and that’s a lot of money for rural Cambodians.”

Consequently, Cambodians can also rent a MoonLight. “Everyday people spend 8 cents on kerosene. We set up a program in which they pay the same amount to rent a MoonLight. I’ve heard that people use it in the most fascinating ways: to catch snails and frogs and to find cattle that ran away at night.”

There’s a big market for MoonLight, Verschelling adds. “Eighty percent of the almost 15 million people living in Cambodia do not have access to electricity. Solar power is a great way for them to get energy. We have also developed a solar home kit and a home system, where people could attach lamps, a radio and/or television. After 6 p.m. it’s completely dark in rural areas. People very badly want to have a television, which gives them a window to the world. We’re currently also expanding our cooperation with a micro-finance institute, so the villagers can buy the home kit or system.”

De rijen voor de oplaadapparaten waren deze maand ‘onaanvaardbaar lang’, erkent Plasterk. Dat kwam door een technisch mankement precies in de periode dat veel studenten hun kaart probeerden te activeren. De oorzaak van dat probleem is inmiddels bekend maar ondanks ‘hoopvolle oplossingen’ nog niet verholpen.

De deadline van 1 februari vervalt, een nieuwe activeerdatum is er nog niet. De minister wil nu “de volledige zekerheid dat alles goed werkt” voordat hij opnieuw een datum prikt. Voorlopig kunnen studenten ook met een ongeactiveerde kaart reizen.

Ook Plasterk vindt dat de communicatie rond de kaart beter had gekund. Vooral de bereikbaarheid van het callcenter schoot in januari “ernstig tekort”. “Ondanks waarschuwingen door DUO heeft het OV het aantal vragen erg onderschat.”