Solar energy, you have been outdone: this lamp literally provides hours of light from a glass of water and two spoons of salt.

SALt (Sustainable Alternative Lighting), a company based in the Philippines, has designed a lamp to help illuminate the homes of Filipinos with limited or no access to electricity.

Its innovators say the device is safer than oil lamps, which pose fire hazards, and less expensive than battery-powered lamps.

Engineer Lipa Aisa Mijena of De La Salle University designed the lamp to work on the principle of the "Galvanic cell," creating electricity from a chemical reaction between the salt water and electrodes inside the lamp.

The lamp can provide a full night of light for up to a year before the electrodes have to be replaced.

It's also a reliable source of light in an island country where natural disasters from typhoons to floods are common. It can run on ocean water if you don't have any table salt handy.

The next model on the drawing board will also let people charge their cellphones (pictured left).

The lamp is not on the market yet and SALt hasn't settled on a price, but the makers promise to keep the cost affordable and to announce its availability soon.

"We are in the process of mass production," SALt posted to its Facebook page this morning.

(READ more at Web Urbanist) — Photos: SALt

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