Neil MacGregor shows solar lamp to Ashden Awards guests: "What people have always hoped for is now a reality"

This week the Ashden Awards team celebrated the selection of a solar lamp and charger as the 100th object in the BBC series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'. We were lucky enough to view the 100th object, exemplified by 2010 Gold Award winners d.light design's Nova lamp, at a reception in the British Museum.

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Founder Director, introduced the object to 100 distinguished guests, specially invited by the Awards team and members of the Development Board:

"This object is something which absolutely represents everything that the Ashden Awards stands for. In 2010 it won the Ashden Awards Gold Award. The reason for this is that it's a practical, simple and affordable object and it is available to the poorest of the poor across the globe. It replaces kerosene bringing clean, safe and bright light to households for the very first time".

The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, went on to explain how the 100th object was chosen:

"I was invited by Sarah to the 2010 Ashden Awards and, as I heard the account of what this solar panel and lamp does, and what solar panels do for people without mains electricity, setting them free, not just from the need for kerosene, but from all the political control that goes with mains electricity, all the corruption, the political interference, it suddenly became clear to me that this had to be the 100th object."

"In every society the greatest prayer is that light perpetual shine on you. And that is of course what this solar panel does, it gives you light perpetual. It lets you take the sun and use it when you need it. And we've put together some objects [in this display case] that show that through the millennia, and around the world, this is always what people have hoped for. And this is now a reality".

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Nick Stern says solar power can free communities from corrupt practices

Carla Jones, from the Ashden Awards communications team, writes about this morning's 100th Object

I’ve been aware of the impressive health and economic benefits of off-grid solar lamps. But what struck me this morning from Lord Stern’s comments was the idea that solar energy can bring political empowerment.

As well as being a more practical solution for the world’s rural communities, off-grid and local energy can also free people from the possibility of corruption.

Lord Stern (pictured) told Neil MacGregor:

“One of the great things about solar power is freedom from the grid. In many parts of the world, particularly the developing world, particularly South Asia and Africa, it is extremely unreliable.

Also the energy is unreliable from the point of view of interventions from corrupt people – it’s all too easy to flick a switch and turn off your energy supply and then demand payment to put it back on.

With solar power you can organise it yourself, you’re in control. So it’s really empowering relative to relying on the grid system”

It's one more way that solar energy allows people within rural communities to take control over their own lives.

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In one hour from the sun, we get enough energy for a year

Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Review, explains to Neil MacGregor the potential of the solar panel and why we are on the verge of a new industrial revolution.

"One of the great advantages of solar energy is that as far as we humans are concerned, it's almost limitless. Why? Because in one hour we get as much energy from the sun on the earth as we use right across the planet in one year. And further, the cost of accessing that limitless supply of energy is really crashing down. Just in the last couple of years, the cost of a solar panel has fallen by about half."

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100th Object: "a story worthy of this generation"

Neil MacGregor on why he picked the solar-powered lamp

"One object alone cannot definitively sum up the world in 2010 but the aspiration to make clean, affordable power available to the most remote communities through the natural power of the sun is a story worthy of this generation."

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Neil MacGregor says "more equal planet has to be more sustainable planet"

Watch Neil MacGregor at the Ashden Awards 2010

It was wonderful to see people in Vietnam, in Africa, in Central America, talking about how sustainable energy is changing their societies. If we are going to make our planet a more equal planet, then it actually also has to be a more sustainable planet.

(Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, presents Radio 4's A History of the World.)

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