UnicoMarketing: This Philippine startup wants to light up poor homes with lamp powered by salt and water

Photo taken from SALt’s Facebook Page.

A possible power shortage coming in the summer of 2015 has been grabbing the headlines in the Philippines this year.

But this is not news for millions of poor Filipino families off-grid: they have been living without electricity. For them, life stops after dark. They close stores early and make sure to be home before sunset. The night is just for sleeping.

Lighting up their homes takes a lot of effort. They need to cut wood to create fire, or walk long hours to the nearest town to buy fuel for their lamps.

Aisa Mijeno witnessed this first hand when she lived with the Butbut tribe in Buscalan, Kalinga during an immersion in 2011. “People did not have access to electricity and had to walk 12 hours to reach Bontoc, a town about 50 kilometres away, to get kerosene for their fuel-based lamps,” she shares in an interview with Tech in Asia.

Mijeno, an engineer who has engaged in social work, says her experience in Kalinga became her motivation in creating an alternative lighting system that many wouldn’t even think possible.

The lighting system doesn’t require electricity, batteries or even fuel to run. All it needs are two basic and natural things: salt and water.

Ideaspace funding

Mijeno had worked in the IT industry until 2008, when she quit to pursue her desire to do volunteer work. She applied for the position of direct dialogue campaigner (DDC) at non-government organization Greenpeace Philippines and lived off her savings. At Greenpeace, she was exposed to the living conditions of poor families in rural areas.

“By the time I had exhausted my entire savings, I was left with no other choice but to give up being a DDC and get employed to sustain my daily expenses,” she recalls.

So in 2010, she joined De La Salle University in her hometown Lipa as part-time engineering lecturer, and continued to travel and volunteer on the side.

It was a blessing in disguise. Mijeno’s idea for the alternative lighting system had been in her mind, but she didn’t have the means to make it happen.

Luckily in 2013, incubator Ideaspace Foundation held a technopreneurship bootcamp in De La Salle-Lipa as part of a nationwide call for entries in its annual startup competition. Mijeno pitched her idea and to her surprise, it got accepted. “I was asked about my marketing strategy and business model, I honestly answered I had zero knowledge on that side, and what I had was born out of compassion for the people I met during my travels.”

With the help of Ideaspace, which provided them funding and “soft support,” Mijeno and her brother Raphael created their startup SALt or Sustainable Alternative Lighting.

Aisa Mijeno presents during the 2014 Ideaspace Foundation demo day. Photo taken from SALt’s Facebook Page.

Targeting the poor

SALt’s lamp looks nothing extraordinary – it also makes use of a LED bulb – but you don’t need to plug it or use battery or fuel to make it light up. Dissolve two tablespoons of salt in a glass of water and pour it onto the lamp and voila, you have light for eight hours. Of course, it’s easier if you live by the sea since saltwater is readily available.

The lamp gives out about 90 lumens equivalent to seven candles lit up or the brightness of a low-LED bulb.

Meanwhile, it has a special feature: a USB slot for charging your mobile phone. Take note however that it can only perform one function at a time – so you need to choose between lighting it up or charging your device.

The product is not rocket science, says Mijeno. In fact, the whole idea behind it is taught in high school chemistry classes. “If you did the lemon-battery experiment, that’s basically it. Two different metals submerged in electrolytes will produce electricity. For us, we used saltwater.”

“It is an open science… so I will not be surprised if there are existing similar technologies developed out there,” she adds.

What’s surprising, according to her, is that “no one ever focused on making this a concrete system to harness energy.” After all, she explains, “Seventy percent of the earth’s surface is saltwater and we still rely on other expensive means that are dependent on geography, climate, and fuel.”

SALt’s product addresses an overwhelming need. In the Philippines alone, 16 million families are off-grid, Mijeno notes, citing a 2013 study done by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

She says their product will keep families from turning to substitutes that are dangerous and expensive like kerosene, which is a major contributor to indoor air pollution. Not only that – it will make a big difference in their lives. It will make them feel safe, give them more hours to spend on their livelihood, and allow their children to study at night.

Photo taken from SALt’s Facebook Page.

Social enterprise

Mijeno recognizes that many of innovators don’t see the poor as a viable market that’s why social enterprises are rare.

“There is a certain degree of difficulty when it comes to achieving financials enough to sustain and to scale a social enterprise and/or a hardware startup,” she says.

She says in her case, pricing is especially tricky. “It is very difficult to find a middle point wherein we feel that we are not selling it for too much and also not underselling it.”

Their lamp now costs US$35 (PHP1,570) – which is quite high for a poor family who often must prioritize food over anything else. So Mijeno says they’re improving the functionality and overall design of the lamp to make sure it “stands the test of time.” The lamp has a shelf life of 10 to 11 years depending on the LED bulb, and they want to extend this further by making it water- and shock-proof. They are also optimizing it to produce up to 350 lumens. “Considering its use, the initial price of the lamp trumps the sustaining cost of battery and fuel-based lighting.”

She says they’re in talks with local governments and NGOs for all forms of partnerships to make sure their product reaches off-grid areas.

In the meantime, SALt was selected to represent the Philippines in the Startup Nations Summit 2014. They will compete against 40 countries globally. Mijeno hopes to use this opportunity to introduce their product to the world.

“Lack of electricity also persists in other countries like Indonesia (63 million of its population), Myanmar (26 million), Cambodia (10 million), Thailand (eight million), Vietnam (two million), Lao PDR (2.2 million), and Malaysia (200,000). We are hoping that they see value in our product,” she says.

At the end of the day, SALt’s goal is “to give light to as many homes as possible.”

(You may vote in the Startup Nations Summit 2014 competition via this link: http://tinyurl.com/kkeh53b. Register using your Facebook or Gmail accounts. Voting ends on November 14.)

This post This Philippine startup wants to light up poor homes with lamp powered by salt and water appeared first on Tech in Asia.