Build My Own FeedApollo lanterns improving lives in Nepal
Here at Black Diamond we are always seeking to innovate and improve, so we were excited to support Mitch Silver when he approached us with his innovative plan: use solar power to recharge Apollo lanterns in Namarkhu, a small village in Nepal, in order to reduce the health risks and costs of kerosene lighting. He needed rechargeable lanterns that were durable, energy efficient, dimmable and cast a powerful amount of quality light—he needed the Apollo.
Below is Mitch’s report from his recent efforts in Namarkhu. We are proud to be a part of this innovative and exciting project (Patagonia also provided a $1500 grant to help defray the cost of the solar panels). We looked at this as a beta test for larger-scale projects and are truly excited to continue to be a part of improving peoples’ lives in the villages of Nepal and elsewhere in the world.
The problem:
The Himalayan development landscape is littered with development efforts whose projects have met with limited success or even total failure due to a raft of issues ranging from the inability to work with local social structures, inappropriate concepts, poor implementation, technological and maintenance failures and more. I’d like to present a conceptually simple project that offers significant benefits, costs that generate net savings to villagers, and a fast and reasonably easy implementation.
Let’s start with the needs. A large percentage of rural Nepal is bereft of electricity and villagers rely on kerosene “tukis” for lighting in the form wick lamps. Without going into elaborate details of the evils of tukis let me enumerate a few of the downsides of burning kerosene. The quality and luminance of the light is minimal making it difficult to read by, marginal for preparing food and almost useless for detailed work. The thick black fumes emanating from the burning kerosene irritate the lungs and mucous membranes. Fire hazards to home and users including small children are substantial. The last item on this short list of evils is that the cost of kerosene is extremely high and rising fast. Villagers have little disposable cash and the cost of kerosene for lighting is both increasing as an expense and as a percentage of overall monthly expenses.
The solution:
Let’s consider the best alternative to kerosene lighting. In the last few years there has been a virtual revolution in energy efficient lighting in the form of LED (light emitting diode) lighting. Prices are dropping and energy efficiency is rising. After much research I found that the best lanterns for this job would be Black Diamond’s rechargeable Apollo lantern. So, given a better choice of lighting, the next question is how to power these lamps. Solar power is a technology whose time has come. Like LED lights, solar power continues to get better and cheaper, and equipment availability is reasonably widespread. LED lighting powered by solar energy has almost unlimited location possibilities.
The success:
After 10 days at Namarkhu village I am very pleased to say we've had success beyond our expectations. Social organization within the village was very smooth and productive, although village meetings in Nepal require significant patience. Transport to and from the village required four arduous trips. Each trip took an entire day with a long bus ride, hours on a worn-out, overcrowded jeep with virtually no suspension and three to four hours of hiking. Ironically, I had picked the area for its ease of access, but much of village Nepal is much more difficult to get to. Initial conceptual and organizational meetings involved the entire village, and other meetings were held during three days with the village leaders and/or the mothers’ group. I then travelled to Damauli where I had shipped the solar panels, batteries and accessories. The next day we reserved a jeep with the solar equipment and the lanterns and returned to Namarkhu village.
The solar system can easily charge 12 Apollos a day and perhaps significantly more. The systems charging capacity will require a learning curve depending on the time of year and the weather, which will determine the amount of sunlight hours per day. By design, the system should have enough capacity to charge the lanterns with little or no sunlight for three days.
Each of the 58 households in the village was provided with an Apollo lantern that has the capability to be recharged up to 1000 times. We handed out the Apollos over a period of several hours to the excited villagers and then trained them one by one in their use. Some of the older folks had some minor issues with the dimmer switch concept and technique but that was overcome with a few minutes of training. The mothers’ group determined where to locate the solar charging station in the village and the couple that were to be in charge of this task. Twelve or more lanterns are dropped off daily in the morning and collected in the afternoon after being fully charged. The couple that charges the lanterns has several compensatory benefits: they get extra lanterns for personal use so they have no kerosene expense at all, and they get 10 rupees every time someone wants to charge their cell phone with them.
The mothers’ group decided to charge the villagers 1000 rupees (roughly 14 US dollars) per household in order to be included in the plan. They decided that 200 rupees (Rps) over 5 months was reasonable, and if someone was unable to pay cash, a labor alternative would be made available. The 200 Rps in this case is about the cost of kerosene for one tuki for a month, which is being replaced by the Apollo. After five months, when the payments are completed, the cash savings will begin. In order to insure a level of sustainability, a maintenance fee of 10 rupees (roughly 14 cents) per charge is leveled. This fee will be banked by the mothers’ group against future battery and/or lantern replacements, as well as long-term solar system maintenance.
The mothers’ group will raise over 50,000 Rps in the next five months from the Apollos. They decided the best use of this money was to implement a new drinking water system for the village. The government had already allocated 50,000 Rps to this end, and I suggested that they should solicit their relatives working abroad for the balance needed. Let’s see if a ripple effect has been set in motion, allowing their new-found lights to spawn a better water system.
We calculated the cost of kerosene lighting per hour and preliminary results indicate about 1.5 Rps per hour based on the kerosene now costing 90 Rps per liter. The charging fee of 10 Rps (which should happen every 5-7 days) should cost roughly 0.33 Rps per hour. One Apollo’s use will save more than 1 Rps per hour or more than 150 Rps a month. An additional Apollo per household would almost eliminate the need for kerosene. The money savings are significant, but do not overshadow the health benefits, fire and burn hazards, the improved quality of light and lifestyle and educational benefits to students.
We have already been approached by other neighboring villagers about getting them lanterns. I think the word will spread very fast and demand will be incredible. The biggest issues for me have been bug bites and the need to try to accommodate all the invitations for tea, snacks, dinner and drinks (local distilled millet drink called kodo ko rakshi) that everyone wants to serve us.
United States / English 
14 Oct 2011, 8:54PM
Thanks for taking Mitch's project under your wings to give it flight. I have known Mitch for over 40 years and highly admire and am jealous of his many achievements.
I am highly interested in LED's advances having worked in the early days of the compact fluorescent revolution at the Lighting Design Lab. It's founding motto was that if we changed the lighting to present day effeciencies in only the commercial sector, we would save what is produced by all our nuclear plants! That was more then 20 years ago, and I feel we are at the beginning of another revolution with LED lighting.
I hope to bring Mitch's idea to the Middle East soon!
I remain sincerely yours
John
6 Oct 2010, 8:55PM
The obvious groundswell of customer support for the Apollo (and BD gear in general) was what made me seriously consider getting an Apollo/Icon combo.
However, I've decided that I'll only buy from companies that stand for something, so this story is what confirmed my decision.
This is not only a great thing to do, but shows that as a company and as people, you are thinking of ways you can improve the world. As we say down here, good on ya mate!
27 Apr 2010, 8:17PM
Thank you Mitch for coming up with this, and many thanks to BD for supporting this project!!!
Is there an opportunity for people to donate to expand this project to more villages in Nepal? Please post a link or details on how this could happen.
I'm not rich, but I'd like to help in a small way and others probably feel the same. Solar powered lighting is a huge benefit in so many ways!
27 Apr 2010, 7:58PM
Great first step!
18 Apr 2010, 11:02PM
Great example of corporate responsibility!
16 Apr 2010, 9:14AM
Thank you very much 'BD'
prem gurung
Mountain guide(NNMA/UIAGM)