Mobile Cinema Powered By The Sun

1967 Bedford mobile cinema
In the late 1960s, Tony Benn, working under Harold Wilson's Labour government, commissioned seven custom built mobile cinema units for the Ministry of Technology campaign to 'raise standards' and promote British industry. The project was short lived and the units were sold off at government auction in 1974, most are thought to have been long since decommissioned and disappeared. However, one has survived via purchase by Sir William McAlpine to tour with the Flying Scotsman locomotive he rescued from America, who consequently donated it to the Transport Trust in 1975 where it was in safe preservation for 15 years. It has since been through a small succession of private owners and is now in a state of mid restoration and due for commercial relaunch as a vintage mobile cinema in March 2010.
Mobile cinema was very popular during the colonial periods in Africa when Landrovers were used as movie vans to transport a white linen screen that is usually mounted on the Landrover, a portable generator, a 16mm projector and mounted loudspeakers. In this way rural areas are reached with propaganda and educational films which are shown usually in the evenings during dark hours. In the UK a mobile Solar powered cinema was launched in 2010. The Sol Cinema http://www.thesolcinema.org uses an LED projector showing short films in cinematic surroundings. They use lithium batteries to store the energy from the Sun to power the cinema all day and night. Their 3 photovoltaic panels harness the sunlight, even as the films are being shown so they never run out of power.