The Portable Light Project embeds flexible solar nano-technology into textiles that can harvest energy and generate light. Flexible photovoltaics and solid state lighting can be incorporated into textiles by local weavers (using traditional weaving techniques), and can be 'charged' in the sun, yielding white light at nighttime. Small devices such as cell phones can also be charged with the textiles. This technology is being used in Mexican Sierra Madre, Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazonias, Nicaragua and now South Africa. By rolling the fabric in a cylinder or a cone or by laying it flat, the user can create different forms of light: a focused flashlight, a reading lamp, a broad ambient light source.  This fabric is already being used in health care settings in Africa and could be used for midwives or mothers.   Go to http://portablelight.org and to this article. 

August 2009: FLAP Bags in Africa! The FLAPs project is now in Africa! FLAPs (Flexible Light and Power) provides an adaptable new form of portable power and light to people without access to the electrical grid or in contexts where electrical power is unreliable. FLAPs is a collaborative effort launched by a world-class group of partners including The Portable Light Project (www.portablelight.org), Timbuk2, (www.timbuk2.com), and PopTech (http://www.poptech.org/blog/index.php/archives/4797). The company is using an open integration approach, based on the idea that people can co-create and adopt the ways that FLAP solar kits are used to suit their needs. Follow FLAPs news on the ground in Africa, at http://www.afrigadget.com/category/flap-bag-project with our friends Erik Hersman (Afrigaget), Henry Addo in Ghana (Ushahidi) and David Ngigi in Kenya (a young videographer) as they ask people how they would adopt these kits, look for inventiveness, and explore how FLAPs can be usable and adaptable to everyday life in Africa.