ABSTRACT
In 1997 Light Up the World, a Canadian non-profit organization I created and direct, set out to try and bring light to the more than one quarter of humanity (1.6 billion people) who had no access to electrical lighting. The guiding principles from the outset were that the form of electrical lighting to be offered to the poor would be safe, healthy, reliable, bright, energy-efficient, and affordable. To the extent possible it would use renewable energy, since the majority of people at the “Bottom of the Pyramid” (Prahalad, 2005) were not serviced by an electrical grid.
