Photos: Let there be light off the grid

Each solar LED flashlight with NiMH batteries, in the hands of children in Madagascar, is meant to last three years. A full charge allows a light to shine 4 to 22 hours depending on the setting. The shape of the Super BoGo model mimics that of a shampoo bottle that Bent's wife used to hang over the shower curtain. It can illuminate a room or be carried on the go.

"We have discovered in male-dominated societies, the men were stealing the lights from the women," Joan Dodd, chief operating officer of SunNight Solar, said in an e-mail. "We made the lights pink--no man wants to carry an item widely seen in their community as a 'woman's product' so the women no longer have their lights stolen from them."

In refugee camps, women armed with flashlights enjoy some protection from potential attackers, Bent added. The company sent 1,000 lights to the State Department to distribute to Afghanistan to help protect girls from the Taliban. It's launching an online offer by which people can donate flashlights for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to distribute locally.

Next, SunNight Solar might try to develop solar-powered devices that kill or sterilize malaria-infected mosquitoes, as well as water treatment technology and a solar radio. Bent also hopes to move manufacturing from China to the United States.