The Portable Light Project, a non-profit research, design, and engineering initiative working to deliver renewable technologies to the developing world, is looking to provide energy harvesting blankets as part of a home care treatment program for rural patients with tuberculosis and HIV.
The Portable Light team is working in conjunction with the iTEACH Program in Zwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and the Massachusetts General Hospital for these blankets that will enable patients to generate power for their family during treatment.
A Portable Light textile provides bright, white light to read, supports cottage industries and facilitates community based education and health care. Each textile generates electrical power to charge cell phones and other small devices. Portable Light maximizes its efficiency through digital communication protocols between linked units. This distributed intelligence allows linked Portable Light units to charge in the sun and work together more efficiently as a group than they could as a collection of individual units. Families benefit from individual ownership of Portable Light and can join their units at times to create a co-operative and sustainable distributed network for community tasks.
Patients use the blanket for warmth while enjoying fresh air and sunlight, all the while the sun is charging the flexible solar panels in three hours creating 4 watts of power which is stored in a rechargeable battery. Once charged, the blanket can provide up to eight hours of light. As an incentive, patients earn ownership of the blankets once the treatment program has been completed.