This Philippine startup wants to light up poor homes with lamp running on 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 says she 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 motivated her to create an alternative lighting system.

The lighting system doesn’t require electricity, batteries or even fuel to run, claims Mijeno, even though the lamp does in fact contain a battery. Pouring salt and water into the lamp activates the battery and causes the lamp to light up.

Update on March 28, 2016: We edited this piece to emphasize that the lamp has a battery, and that salt and water are merely electrolytes that make the battery work. During the initial interview, Mijeno herself claimed that the lamp does not require a battery to light up.

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.

Luckily in 2013, incubator Ideaspace Foundation held a technopreneurship bootcamp in De La Salle 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 put up their startup SALt or Sustainable Alternative Lighting.