Engineers and chemists in rural Brazil have developed an eco-friendly lighting innovation known locally as “sugar paint,” a photoluminescent coating that absorbs daylight and emits a soft glow after sunset — offering a sustainable alternative to traditional electric lighting in remote areas.
The coating combines sugar-derived compounds with photoluminescent minerals similar to technologies used in other glowing paints that charge by daylight and then emit light without electricity. These pigments absorb light during the day and gradually release it at night, improving visibility without wiring, bulbs or energy sources. Photoluminescent paints have been deployed worldwide to enhance safety for pedestrians and cyclists in areas with little or no street lighting. Locals have affectionately dubbed the illuminated areas “moon passages” — poetic walkways and tunnel segments that glow softly under natural light. The sugar paint’s gentle radiance provides enough illumination for cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles to navigate safely through tunnels and paths where installing conventional lighting infrastructure would be difficult or costly.
What sets this innovation apart is its sustainability: the paint is biodegradable, non-toxic and completely passive, using renewable natural materials to create light without contributing to energy consumption or light pollution. By turning agricultural by-products into functional coatings, the project is an example of how science and nature can work in harmony to solve practical challenges in hard-to-reach regions.
As communities adopt sugar paint across rural transport corridors and underpasses, the technology may serve as a model for low-impact lighting solutions in other parts of the world where access to reliable electricity is limited.
