It was followed by Lille in the same year and Amsterdam two years later, where a much more efficient oil-powered lamp was developed.

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But some of our favorite designs are the ones that do social good, like Olafur Eliasson's Little Sun -- a portable solar-powered lamp that's being distributed to people who live without electricity worldwide.

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Although each step produces only enough electricity to keep an LED-powered street lamp lit for 30 seconds, Kemball-Cook says that the tiles are a real-world "crowdsourcing" application, harnessing small contributions from a large number of individuals.

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In other news, energy-efficient lighting advanced by leaps and bounds this week as we flipped the switch on IKEA's new solar-powered Solvinden lamp and we spotted a crystalline "Stardust" LED lamp made from sugar at the Milan Furniture Fair.

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It was also a hot week for energy-generating tech as Intel unveiled a solar laptop chipset that can be powered by a desk lamp and MIT developed a tiny kinetic generator that can produce 100 times more power than previous devices of its kind.

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London's service will be powered by equipment attached to lamp-posts and other existing structures on London's streets, and should be completed by March.

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Once home, he has a battery-powered radio and uses a small kerosene lamp to pass time at night reading.

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