Turning on the light with the flick of a switch, is something most of us take for granted. Yet half of the world's population, like these villagers from the Amazon region in Peru, have no electricity to turn on.

But now, with the help of the sun this blue gel and CSIRO research, they too will be able to turn on the light.

People in remote areas, not connected to an electricity grid, and those wanting to use "green" power, can both turn to the the sun and the wind to harness environmentally friendly and limitless energy. But that energy has to be reliably stored.

In the past, lead acid batteries could do the job, but they had a limited life span and needed topping up with water. So a long life, lead acid battery that didn't need constant maintenance was developed, by using a gel that hardens and cracks. When the oxygen that comes off the battery goes through those cracks it recombines or turns itself back into water.

"Gel batteries are not new. The technology has been known for a long time. However there's a serious problem with all Lead Acid batteries that their life is not sufficiently long to make those batteries affordable"

CSIRO's David Rand and Battery Energy South Pacific are developing a gel battery which not only has a long life, it's cheaper.

Affordability is an important consideration for people like these Peruvian villagers soon to receive 14 hundred gel batteries.

"We have got to put new technology into it so that we can make it last longer so it can become more affordable"

Gel cells are also part of the future in the automotive industry. Following the success of the Australian Concept Car aXcess 1, CSIRO is developing aXcess 2, a hybrid electric petrol vehicle which will use gel cell batteries.

This revolutionary vehicle will use petrol on long distance runs, then be able to switch to batteries around the city, saving petrol and creating a cleaner environment.