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創新的太陽能電燈為印度超過100條沒有電力供應的窮鄉僻壤帶來希望，入夜後，村民的生活仍可繼續精彩。
以前，村民在日落後若要煮食、耕作或讀書，都會採用效率較差的火水燈照明；然而此舉費時失事。
新的太陽能電燈設計簡單，通常功率只有5到7瓦，電池充滿電後可用最多8小時。村民只需於白天利用公共太陽板充電。
除為電燈充電，插頭還可為手機充電，使用者可用調節手柄加大電力。
「照亮10億人」計劃去年推出，為能源貧乏的印度提供環保的解決方法，村民每天只需要付出3至6盧比(約0.5至1港元)便可租用太陽能電燈。
西孟加拉邦戈賓多拉姆普爾區一名魚販向研究員表示：「我的店舖營業至晚上9時，所有魚都賣完。」
首批5,000支太陽能電燈分別送到9個邦，這名魚販是其中一名受惠者，生活起了重大變化。
負責這個「照亮10億人」計劃的新德里能源和資源中心，希望最終能夠點起2億支太陽能電燈。
計劃負責人表示，每支電燈能用10年，可省回500至600公升火水，減少1.5噸二氧化碳排放。
政府數字顯示，印度超過1萬條窮鄉未有電網覆蓋，但這次太陽能革命亦能惠及耗電量飛升的市區中產人士。
停電對印度來說是平常事，孟買、新德里、加爾各答等市區都不能例外。雖然印度人均用電量在07至08年只有704千瓦，比起已發展國家的8,000千瓦為低，但印度的用電量並無下跌跡象。
解決停電問題的環保方案就是在停電時使用太陽能變頻器供電。
印度政府將推廣全國的太陽能計劃，希望在2020年前能將太陽能化為200億瓦的電力。 ■綜合外電消息 ■資深翻譯員 羅國偉
Solar Lantern Lights up Rural India's Dark Nights
For more than 100 Indian villages cut off from grid electricity, life no longer comes to an end after dark thanks to an innovative solar-powered lantern that offers hope to the nation's rural poor.
While cooking, farming and studying after sunset were once a struggle using inefficient kerosene or paraffin lamps, the solar lantern now provides a cheap and practical source of light.
The simple device, which is charged during the day from a communal rooftop solar panel, uses between 5 and 7 watts of power and has a battery that lasts up to 8 hours.
It also boasts a socket for charging mobile phones and a hand crank for topping up the power.
Villagers pay between 3 and 6 rupees(0.5 to 1 HK Dollar)a day to rent the lantern under the "Lighting a Billion Lives"(LaBL)scheme, which was launched last year to promote solar energy as the environmentally friendly answer to India's energy shortages.
"I keep my shop open as late as 9:00 pm. All my fish get sold by that time," a fish seller in Govindorampur district in West Bengal state who uses the lamp told researchers.
He is one of those whose lives have been transformed by the first wave of 5,000 lanterns distributed across 9 states in India.
The LaBL scheme, run by The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI)in New Delhi, plans to eventually put 200 million lamps into use.
Organisers say each lamp should work for 10 years, saving between 500 and 600 litres of kerosene which would produce about 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Government figures show more than 10,000 impoverished Indian villages have no access to grid electricity, but the solar revolution could also change middle-class lives in urban India, where energy demands have soared.
Power cuts are common even in the smarter suburbs of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. While per capita electricity use in India－704 kilowatt hours in 2007-2008－is far lower than the 8,000 kilowatt hours per capita in many industrialised countries, there is no sign of consumption slowing.
One "green" solution to the outages is a solar-charged inverter for backup electricity during cuts.
The government hopes to harness this potential into 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020 as part of its National Solar Mission to promote renewable energy. ■AFP
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