d.light A2 Solar Lantern
MLC Vanguard | Created by d.light
For hundreds of millions of people living without grid access, A2 is the first quality solar lantern they can afford, providing up to a 20% increase in income for other uses. Its small and versatile design is ultra-portable but can still spread light to every corner of a room.
4,998,889 Lives Impacted
Thanks to the A2, millions of families will gain extra hours of light to work, study, and play, while simultaneously reducing the harmful health effects and slow-burn cost of kerosene lamps. The reduced dependence on kerosene will allow families to start saving up to 20% of their daily income, which can now be better spent on educating their children and improved nutrition. For one family which was interviewed, the savings meant having bus money instead of walking 15 kms to the nearest town to find work. For another, it meant their children could afford milk thrice a week now, instead of once a week earlier.
The Innovation
For off-grid families living at the base of the pyramid in Asia and Africa, the benefits of solar-powered light are clear. But for a huge portion of the market, even the cheapest lanterns are simply out of reach. On top of that, there is an influx of cheap imitation goods which have no warranty and low quality, thus failing often. Whenever these cheap-quality lights fail, customers revert back to harmful kerosene or firewood, which causes eye-damage due to dim lighting, health issues due to harmful smoke and a risk of fire in case of accidents (which is a leading cause of death in underdeveloped countries in Africa). The challenge is to provide a long-lasting, easy-to-use lighting solution that is affordable for all base-of-pyramid families, which sometimes earn less than a $1 a day.
Priced at around half the cost of existing solutions, A2 breaks this affordability barrier. Most users recover the $5 cost within 3 weeks of fuel savings, and thereafter enjoy a 20% increase in disposable income that can be invested in education, health, and the future.
A2’s versatile design is ultra-portable but can still spread light to every corner of a room. Built with the durability d.light is loved for, it survives 3-5 years of daily use, even when dropped or left out in the rain. It is built of the highest-quality components available: the battery can last 3x the lifetime of iPhone batteries, even in extreme heat, and the solar panel and LED are among the most efficient in the world.
While other lighting products use recycled lithium batteries or dry-cells, d.light A2 uses rechargeable Lithium Ferro-phosphate solar batteries, which can last upwards of 5 years without any perceptible change in performance. It provides consistently bright light, being three times as bright as a kerosene lamp and lasts for more than 4 hours on a single charge. Secondly, it is a compact product, built using high-durability sonic-welded ABS plastic, with an embedded high-efficiency mono-crystalline panel, which can fully charge the battery in a single day. A big discriminator is the product's assured 1-year hassle-free REPLACEMENT warranty, so if the product fails, we give you a new one free of charge! Finally, addressing the affordability challenge like no other, the d.light A2 is available for less than $4, making it the world's most affordable quality solar lantern, truly "A Solar Lantern for All". This product is certified by Lighting Global, a subsidiary of World Bank and GOGLA. The d.light A2 transforms life for millions of families who never imagined they could afford solar, giving them more hours to work and study at night without the fear of fire or stress of recurring costs, and will help d.light brighten 100 million lives by 2020.
About d.light
d.light is a global leader and pioneer in delivering affordable solar-powered solutions designed for the two billion people in the developing world without access to reliable energy. d.light provides distributed solar energy solutions for households and small businesses that are transforming the way people all over the world use and pay for energy. Through four hubs in Africa, China, South Asia and the United States, d.light has sold over 20 million solar light and power products in 70 countries, improving the lives of over 100 million people. d.light is dedicated to providing the most reliable, affordable and accessible solar lighting and power systems for the developing world.
