In many places, when the sun sets education stops, commerce stops, medical treatment stops, due to lack of light and electricity. Villagers who can afford it burn kerosene lamps which pollute the air in their houses and require costly fuel. Some families have only the light of the cooking fire.
VillageSolutions (Nepal) developed the SunLight system in partnership with VTS, LEC's predecessor. SunLights evolved from an earlier project, called EcoPower, which involved a community 'power plant': a human pedal-powered generator, specialized charge controller and an energy storage and distribution system.
Field trials revealed a clear social preference for individual household lighting systems rather than community-wide solutions. Consequently the EcoPower system’s technology was reconfigured into a high quality solar-powered system for individual household use.
The current Village Sun Lights system uses 10W solar panels, a deepcycle 12V battery managed by the proprietary charge controller, multi-LED lamps and a mobile phone charger. School children can study at night and their parents can cook and work after dark with no health hazards.