Our actions have consequences for the world. Little Sun is a wedge that opens up the urgent discussion about bringing sustainable energy to all from the perspective of art to raise awareness about energy access and the unequal distribution of energy today. – Olafur Eliasson
A beautiful, high-performance handheld solar phone charger and light, designed by artist Olafur Eliasson.
A work of art that works in life, a great solar energy product and a social business in one.
Since we launched Little Sun, our global solar art project, three years ago, we have lived by the philosophy that we all share the sun.
The sun’s energy is powerful enough to be available to every single one of us on earth in the form of clean and sustainable energy.
Light is for everyone – it determines what we do and how we do it.
Light and life are inseparable. I have always considered light to be more than just something practical. Light touches our feelings.
In my artworks I use light to shape spaces and environments that make people wonder, make them question how they sense the world and engage with it.
I believe that art can change the world by making an issue as urgent as energy access not just understandable for the mind but also physically tangible. This experience can lead us to recognise our interconnectivity, what we have in common, and it moves us to act.
So far, the Little Sun lamp has brought light to hundreds of thousands of people, including over 670,000 people living without access to the electrical grid.
Now we’re very excited to show you the next Little Sun that we have designed: a solar mobile phone charger called Little Sun Charge.
What is so great about solar technology is that it takes the sun – which is for all of us – and makes it available to each of us, no matter where in the world we are. The sun nourishes, it connects and empowers. Using sunlight, Little Sun Charge directly connects us with each other through our mobile phones.
At Little Sun we are working tirelessly to make this solar technology available to as many people as possible, embedded in beautiful designs.
It’s for anyone who wants a smart, beautifully-designed and environmentally-sound way to charge their phone.
It’s for all of us: for those of us who want a way to charge our mobile phones on the go. Also for those of us living off-grid with no reliable way to charge our phones.
For example, Little Sun Charge is perfect for:
Free yourself from the grid!
You have the power to make Little Sun Charge a reality here with us on Kickstarter. Be one of the first to own a beautiful, artist-designed solar phone charger – and become part of a global solar energy project.
Little Sun has always worked by the belief that we are stronger together.
Our ideals of compassionate global togetherness and energy access for all resonate with the community spirit of Kickstarter.
Because the Charge is based on cutting-edge technology, it makes sense to launch it via a digital and social platform.
This Kickstarter campaign will help Little Sun bring a beautiful solar phone charger to you. At the same time it will also further Little Sun’s mission of bringing sustainable energy to all.
Olafur and our team have designed and engineered this beautiful prototype. Now we need YOU to join us on Kickstarter to take us from prototype to production.
If you back us on Kickstarter, your contribution will enable us to produce our first batch, ready for market by March 2016.
The Little Sun Charge prototype is designed and ready to order.
To get us to this point, the prototype has gone through many design iterations.
We have:
We are now ready to present the perfect Charge to you.
With your funding we will:
All units for our wonderful Kickstarter backers will be delivered to you as our top priority, as soon as they are ready at the factory! We are excited!
Become a solar ambassador and be one of the first to own a Little Sun Charge. Let’s bring this life-changing Little Sun Charge to YOU and to the people who live without access to energy through Kickstarter.
I hope you’re just as excited as I am about our mission!! – Olafur
When you back us on Kickstarter, you also become a crucial part in bringing Olafur’s next ‘work of art that works in life’ to the world. We’ll thank you for your involvement and generosity with rewards such as:
All rewards are accompanied by a heartfelt squawk of gratefulness from our parrot!
The story of Little Sun Charge began when we saw how many solar phone chargers there are out there that take 20 hours to charge, and we wanted to radically change that – for everyone with phones that are always running out of battery – and for those living off-grid with no reliable way to charge.
Our solar solution is Little Sun Charge: a top-quality, portable, high-performance solar phone charger.
Olafur insisted that it had to be beautiful and resonate with a vibrant energy, reflecting the core value of Little Sun to share happiness and light.
And from an engineering perspective, I made sure that Little Sun Charge:
It’s perfectly calibrated solar technology that we are very proud of. It puts the power of the sun in your hand – freeing you from the grid!
Little Sun is a social business and global project founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen to get clean, reliable, affordable light to the 1.1 billion people in the world living in off-grid areas without electricity. The project’s first product, the Little Sun solar LED lamp, is sold all over the world. Purchasing Little Suns in areas of the world with electricity makes the lamps available in off-grid areas at reduced, locally affordable prices, where they provide a clean alternative to toxic and expensive fuel-based lighting such as kerosene lanterns.
Little Sun addresses the need for light in a sustainable way that benefits off-grid communities by working with local entrepreneurs, creating local jobs, and generating local profits. The Little Sun project was officially launched in July 2012 at London’s Tate Modern. Since then, more than 300,000 Little Sun lamps have been distributed worldwide, with almost half going to off-grid areas. For more information: www.littlesun.com
(n.b: video shows the Little Sun Charge prototype: proposed batch will feature a blue ‘sunburst’).
In all our Little Sun travels, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, we meet so many people living without access to energy and they tell us again and again that they depend on their mobile phones for their livelihoods. They also tell us they have no reliable way to charge their phones – and we all know the feeling of having a dead phone.
One of Little Sun’s oldest and most trusted partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa is with Alight Zimbabwe – a community-based trust formed by young entrepreneurs who were sponsored by the NGO Plan International as children, and now work as the distributors of Little Suns in Zimbabwe.
Alight has told us directly how urgent the need is for people in their communities to have access to solar phone chargers. Little Sun is answering that need with Little Sun Charge.
By backing Little Sun Charge on Kickstarter, you will directly impact the lives of people living without access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly through the rewards we are offering in our campaign that will allow Alight Zimbabwe to scale their local distribution.
For more of Olafur in his Studio, watch Olafur’s pre-campaign video:
(Video shows the Little Sun Charge prototype: proposed batch will feature a blue ‘sunburst’).