Solar lamp, Little Sun, Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen, designed 2012

Solar-powered lamp, yellow plastic moulded to the shape of a meskal flower, with an LED lightbulb located at the centre and a small solar panel to the side of it. With the lamp is its original packaging, a hanging cord and two printed paper leaflets.

The early 21st century saw the foundation of several similar social enterprises providing accessible, off-grid lighting solutions. Examples include: London based SolarAid (2009), South Africa based Sonnenglass (2010) and Philippines based Litre of Light (2011). Between 2010 and 2011 the off-grid lighting market in the continent of Africa grew 450%, a reflection of the diversification of products, improved distribution systems and increased consumer awareness driven by the innovation of off-grid lighting enterprises.

Little Sun distinguished itself from these projects through its focus on emotional design and desirability. In a 2012 interview with VICE, Frederik Ottesen described the product development he and Eliasson undertook in dialogue with Ethiopian users:

“We were struck by the fact that nobody had done anything to make the lamps beautiful. Nobody had done anything to emphasize that this was something we should all aspire to buy,”

“These people are just like you and me…they want fancy stuff; they want new stuff."

"We asked (users) how does beauty look? How does prosperity look?" And that understanding translated into a shape that turned out to be something in between a sun and a flower—a nice object, an interesting object—something that people would smile about.”

According to the organisation, Little Sun had distributed over 1.4 million personal solar devices by 2021. They estimate that this has resulted in 139 million additional study hours for children, saved households 175 million US dollars in expenses and helped reduce CO2 emissions by 1 million metric tons.

The lamp has since become the namesake product of the non-profit Little Sun, a global organisation led by Eliasson and Ottesen that aims to ‘increase universal access to design and deliver affordable clean energy solutions, and inspire people to take climate action’. Expanding past product design and distribution, Little Sun has launched global culture programmes to engage artists and creatives in crafting positive and action-based narratives around climate change.

Designed in 2012 by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen, Little Sun is an affordable solar powered LED lamp in the shape of the Ethiopian meskal flower. After five hours of solar charging, the lamp provides up to 50 hours of soft light or 4 hours of bright light.

Little Sun was initially conceived as a useable, socially impactful output of Eliasson’s artistic work exploring light, energy, and the natural environment. Eliasson describes Little Sun as ‘a work of art that works in life.’

The lamp was designed to provide affordable, safe, personal lighting for people living in areas of sub-Saharan Africa without access to mains electricity. In these areas, many households instead rely on the light from dangerous, environmentally damaging and costly kerosene lanterns to work, study, cook or socialise past sundown.

To provide Little Sun at the lowest cost possible to the end user, positioning it as a viable alternative to kerosene lamps, sales of Little Sun follow a social business model. The lamp is sold at a higher price point to wealthier consumers as a boutique item, allowing more to be sold at a low cost to independent entrepreneurs and local retailers in target communities. Subsidised unit prices mean that these local retailers can offer Little Sun to the end user at an affordable price, whilst still making a profit.

B.64-2022