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Comment by hartror | Hacker News Reader

Really neat design but €240 seems really expensive for the people they are targeting.

Which is why they're planning to have the battery/LED module, which accounts for most of the cost, manufactured inside the country rather than imported, which should make it much cheaper.

And what are labor standards like there?

What are waste disposal standards like there?

Is this one of those projects that, twenty years from now, we'll be reading about someone taking heroic efforts to solve the problems of?

There are many things to be worried about in the world, however I do not think we need to be overly fearful of the concept of producing a portable lamp close to the location where we want to then use it.

> There are many things to be worried about in the world, however I do not think we need to be overly fearful of the concept of producing a portable lamp close to the location where we want to then use it.

It's precisely the kind of thing we need to be fearful of if spreading manufacturing becomes a trend but spreading environmental and labor standards does not.

Mali's economy is mostly cash-crop agriculture and mining. Increasing tech manufacture in the economy is exceedingly likely to be less damaging and have better working conditions than what is currently available.

Probably pretty much the same as China or Indonesia or wherever it's being made at the lowest cost right now?

It's an old bike wheel, a metal pole, a battery, some wire and an LED light.

The BOM on this is probably under $50 tops.

The led and battery, from what I understand, seems to be imported as a single module from a manufacturer that produces public street lighting, hence the high price.

There's also a solar panel, but I agree it seems crazy high.

To be fair, the main thing is that they are actually getting adopted and used, integrated into village life. It's common to spend a lot of money "helping" people, with no long-term benefit to them.

I don't think these are a bad idea. On the contrary they're actually pretty cool and I wouldn't mind having one as a 1st world american for camping trips and the like. It would beat trying to use a strong flashlight and a white 10 gallon bucket as an impromptu area lamp.

I would bet within a year, some clever entrepreneurial person where these are being used will start converting old car batteries, flashlights, some old tubing or wood and junked mopeds into these. Sells them for $30.

And then decoupling the panels and building centralized solar powered charging stations out of used 120W solar cells (on ebay, $120 even 12v!) and sells a "charge" for $.10 or whatever the local market can handle (or a village can buy one for $200).

An even more clever person could turn a pump, wind turbine or a see-saw into a charger/generator and top these things off while the kids play.

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