Filipinos invent a lamp that runs on salt and water.

Courtesy of SALt

The SALt lamp is being used to recharge a cell phone.

CAN WE GET these guys on Sharktank?

Aisa and Raphael Mijeno of the Philippines have an amazing invention that can change the world. It's a light -- that runs on seawater. No batteries, no oil, no kerosene - just salt and water!

The siblings have invented a product that will light up the thousands of Filipino villages on the 7,000 islands that have no electricity.

“Most of these people are so poor and underprivileged that they endure long hours of walking just to get kerosene for their lamps,” Aisa told ABS-CBN news.

Their invention can run for eight hours with a daily saltwater refill, and changing the metal rods every six months is the only maintenance required. Besides providing illumination, the product can charge smart phones. If you don't have access to seawater, just add two tablespoons of salt to a glass of water, presto! - a power source.

Imagine the impact such an invention could have in much of the undeveloped world, in the dusty villages of India, in the forests of Africa and South America, the desert villages of the  Middle East and other parts of Asia could have light. Because the power source is salt and water, it would be an inexpensive source of power affordable by poorest of the poor.

Approximately 1.1 billion people are living without access to electricity, according to the World Bank , which attributes access to "affordable, reliable and sustainable energy" as crucial to ending poverty. 

The Mejino's startup company SALt, Sustainable Alternative Lighting, is more than just a manufacturer. It's a social movement. They've provided their lamp to several Filipino tribes allowing them to extend their work day by hours. 

The SALt team told The Huffington Post they'll work with nonprofits to distribute the lamps to rural communities in the Philippines that don't have access to energy.  

SALt will make lights available to underprivileged families not supported by NGOs for about $20.

The team says the retail price for the general public will be higher -- and for every lamp sold, one will be donated to a family in need.  

The brother-sister team complement each other. Aisa Mijeno is currently a faculty member of Engineering at the Philippines' De La Salle University — Lipa and she's a member of Greenpeace Philippines. It was while living with one of the remote Filipino mountain tribes on Luzon that inspired her. 

She watched the local hike nearly 50 kilometers along jagged paths to buy fuel for kerosene lamps, their only source of light. Children would often miss school to make the trip.

“That’s when the SALt Lamp was born,” Mijeno said. “My vision was to solve this problem for the 16 million Filipinos who have no access to electricity—those in the mountains, on small islands, people off the grid.”

Her brother, Raphael Antonio, is a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Business Management and has worked for an Australian and British firm. He has background in accounting, finance and sales. 

The Mijenos and their lamp have not gone unnoticed. They've won several awards but they are still mired in the manufacturing stage of their product. On Oct. 15 they'll find out if Ricebowl Startup Award by the New Entrepreneurs Foundation.

Awards are nice a few thousand here and there is peanuts. What SALt needs is a quick and large infusion of capital, something Silicon Valley's venture capitalists could provide. 

“The failure rate for startups is about 96%,” said KickStart founder and President Minette Navarrete. Even so, Ms. Navarrete told the Wall Street Journal that Philippine tech is poised for its first big breakthrough. 

Or, someone like Mr. Gates, who has shown an interest in improving the lot of the impoverished ... could invest in a worthwhile product that in its simplicity, could really change the world.