Sustainable Alternative Lighting, or SALt Corp. is a start-up company focused on developing a cost-effective and environmentally safe source of lighting that runs on saltwater.
The company’s SALt lamp is a product, but the developers also call it a social movement, simply because it promotes the use of a cleaner light source that replaces kerosene lanterns for many people around the world. The idea behind the SALt lamp is to use ocean water, which we have in abundance, said GizMag.
The lamp “uses the science behind the Galvanic cell, the basis for battery-making,” says the company on its website. The process involves changing electrolytes to a simple and safe saline solution. It is totally non-toxic and more important, there is no danger of fires caused by tipped over kerosene lamps or candles.
As an alternative for kerosine/battery powered lamps and candles, the SALt lamp is a perfect fit, regardless of whether you’re on a camping trip, or if you live someplace where there is no access to electricity. The company says the salt lamp can run for eight hours at a time, every day, and the anode’s lifespan is about six months. If used only as a light source, the anode’s lifespan will be extended to about a year.
The idea behind the innovative saltwater lamp comes from engineer and Greenpeace volunteer Aisa Mijeno. She is the co-founder and CEO. She came up with the idea after spending time with native Filipino tribes who had to rely on kerosene lamps to perform everyday tasks after the sun went down.
With 7,000 islands in the Philippines, and many of them not having access to electricity, the lamps would eliminate “the sustaining cost in areas that rely on kerosene/battery powered lamps and candles as their main source of lighting,” says the company.
Not only will the SALt lamp give someone light using a glass of water and two teaspoons of salt (or a glass of ocean water), but the lamp can be used to recharge a smartphone by just plugging in the phone’s USB cable. The ability to charge a smartphone is vitally important to the Philippines because based on a recent U.N. study, the region is the third most disaster-prone country in the world.
The cost of the SALt lamp is still under study by the company. They are very keen to target an affordable price that will support and sustain the production of the product. They do promise to have a price very soon, and will announce it as soon as the study is done. The lamp should be out by the end of this year, or at the latest, in the first quarter of 2016.