Music aims to bring power and light to the world’s developing countries with SPARK Kickstarter

Faithless percussionist Sudha Kheterpal has developed a prototype musical instrument aiming to solve some of the power issues in developing countries such as Kenya.

“The problem is that three quarters of Kenyans do not have access to mains electricity so we need to find new ways to bring clean sustainable energy to rural areas” explains Sudha.

The initiative is called Shake your Power and the first product in development is the SPARK, a percussions shaker that converts the energy created when it is shaken into electricity.

SPARK works like a very simple kinetic generator – a magnet moves through coils and the energy this creates is stored in a small battery. Beads in the case make the sound when it is shaken.

12 minutes of shaking offers up to an hour’s worth of light via attachments that are connected using a USB port, the idea being that more attachments, like phone chargers, can be added later.

There’s an element of education to the SPARK too. It will be available in kits so that children can put it together themselves and learn about how it works. Not only will the light help children and adults be able to walk safely at night, it will also allow them to read after the sun sets.

The Shake your Power Kickstarter campaign is live and has already achieved more than half of its £50,000 goal. Click here to find out more

Check out the awesome Maxi Jazz talking about the SPARK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMnFh4nQXMM

The Kickstarter campaign hopes to take the project to the final stages of development. This process has three parts;
1. Take the prototype to finished product
2. Manufacture and distribute the product
3. Develop assembly kits to enable to the end user to build their own SPARK.