Solar IS Civil Defense. Start with the basics. What do you need in case of emergency or disaster? Flashlight, radio, and an extra set of batteries.
You have that in one package with a solar/dynamo flashlight/radio. If the solar/dynamo can charge rechargeable AA batteries, then you also have a source of low voltage DC electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
A solar/dynamo battery charger that can provide light and communications, like a radio or a cell phone or both, is useful for camping as well as emergency or disaster. Solar IS civil defense and more than civil defense, too. Micro-solar, AA solar, cell phone solar is a scale that fits within both the developing and developed world very well.
In Afghanistan, NATO forces are distributing solar/dynamo AM/FM/SW radios. Do those solar/dynamo radios have the ability to charge extra batteries? If they do, then with enough rechargeable batteries there is a low voltage DC network through battery switching.
Iraq now has less electricity than that sovereign country had under the hated Saddam Hussein. Could we use tactical solar for nation-building?
You can take one room essentially off-grid for less than $200 dollars with solar LED reading lights and radio. You can modify existing solar/dynamo products to charge AA and other batteries. You can see videos of working propotypes and developing designs here.
A proposed solar public education campaign is here. It includes the public demonstration of solar and applied ecology at events like the 3700 farmers markets that happen every week around the USA throughout growing season; a solar product chain from a Minimum Solar Light to a one room/one window solar system available in various modes - PV, heating, cooling, and ventilation; and a do-it-yourself solar video program Your Southernmost Window that currently is in production as an open source invention and viral video project.
Solar Is Civil Defense and always will be. You can even use the original WWII posters to help prove it.
Here are links to other relevent WWII Posters.
Solar Is Civil Defense.
