Jean Bell is secretary at UK’s National Health Service NHS.

Having followed the development of GoSol and Solar Fire, I think solar concentrators could be a valuable, environmentally-friendly solution.

A communal village concentrator could free up local people from having to walk further and further to collect wood and allow them to start small enterprises, such as selling food products made using the concentrator.

Children who are also involved in collecting wood might be freed to attend school which may be currently denied to them because of the demands of the daily domestic chores they have to perform.

In remote areas or areas of great deprivation in the sun belt, a communal, solar concentrator could be the basis of small local enterprises such as cooking, drying fruit and beans and the generation of steam to power a small engine.

As well as for general daily use in sun-belt areas, solar concentrators could be beneficial to communities in the aftermath of disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes.

Being a low-tech product, solar concentrators can be cheaply made with local materials and easily maintained by local people trained as operators, as the Haiti project shows.

Jean Bell, NHS Secretary, UK National Health Service