Greenlight Planet, a company delivering innovative energy solutions to people with no access to electricity, is now entering the outdoor market by offering three versions of its Sun King lamps in the U.S. Greenlight Planet developed in 2005 from an idea by T. Patrick Walsh, a student of the University of Illinois who had spent part of that year working with the charity Engineers Without Borders in rural India. Walsh saw that the residents widely used kerosene lamps but were not charity cases, and they also needed a better product. He designed and sold, in 2006, the first solar-lantern prototypes in the state of Orissa. His lanterns were brighter and healthier than kerosene lamps, as they reduced the use of dirty and dangerous fuels, and they were also affordable, so that people could buy them without subsidies. In 2007, Mayank Sekhsaria and Anish Thakkar joined him and the three founded Greenlight Planet. Since then, Greenlight Planet's solar-powered Sun King lanterns are said to have provided sustainable light to more than 7.5 million users across rural India and Africa. The lantern is suggested as an addition to any emergency kit, hunting camp or off-grid homestead. In the U.S., Greelight Planet is marketing three lamps at a suggested retail prices from $17.99 to $49.99. Sun King solar lantern products feature a five-year lithium ferrophosphate battery, which is said to burn for 30 straight hours between charges.

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