In 2008, 70% of the Cambodian population had no access to the power grid. Kamworks Ltd. (Cambodia) was looking for a very cheap and sustainable lighting solution for the rural population of Cambodia. The initial project was carried out with an interdisciplinary student team (Ana Maria Alvarez, Doortje van de Wouw, Loucas Papantoniou & Stephanie Wirth) on the spot, in close collaboration with rural villagers and making use of the available local production facilities. The result, MoonLight, is a solar-powered mobile LED lamp for basic ambient lighting. [Title photo: Olli Moilanen]
[Photo: Mathieu Young]
The robust and reliable lamp replaces the kerosene lamps Cambodians have been relying on for daily tasks that take place after 6 PM (cooking, eating, reading…) and for orientation light at night. Kerosene lights give poor, non-directable light, represent a big fire risk due to the wooden structure of most huts, are toxic and stay with continuous running costs expensive over the years. In contrast to other international solar LED light initiatives with high-but-bundled light output and lacking charge control that would lead to quick damage, we decided to spend the limited component budget on reliable electronics and basic-but-comfortable ambient lighting using wide-angle LED’s.
Kamworks has introduced the MoonLight in September 2009 to the Cambodian market. It has been sold more than 40,000 times.
MoonLight has won the Toon-van-Tuijl Design Award 2008 (part of the Dutch Design Awards) and the FEEL THE PLANET EARTH Cifial Design Award 2008 and has been part of the Dutch Design Awards exposition at the Dutch Design Week 2008. It has been featured in a broad range of international newspapers (we made it into the New York Times!), magazines and blogs and helped to create awareness for the topic.
[A short (originally German) documentary about renewable energy in Cambodia. Start at 3:30 for Kamworks and MoonLight]
STEPHANIE WIRTH | PRODUCT DESIGN 