[media-credit name="Snigdha Sengupta" align="alignnone" width="199"]
[/media-credit]D.Light Design, a startup which makes solar-powered LED lanterns for developing world consumers, has won the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy 2010. The Cayman Islands registered company won £40,000 as the Gold Award winner this year. D.Light’s lamps enable users to replace kerosene lamps that tend to be more expensive and hazardous to health. The company’s lamps (the ‘kiran’ in photo) are priced between Rs 500 and Rs 1,600 and can provide light up to 12 hours on a full charge.
“The judges were particularly impressed with their highly effective marketing strategy which has put solar lighting within reach of over a million people in 32 countries…” said Sarah Butler-Sloss, founder-director of the Ashden Awards. The awards were instituted in 2001 to encourage the greater use of local sustainable energy to address climate change and alleviate poverty. So far, they have rewarded 140 winners globally. The total prize money this year, shared by five winners, including D.Light, was £140,000. Read the full story
