The story of William Kamkwamba is one of true ingenuity and innovation. Originally from the Kusungu National Park within the borders of Malawi, William has received international acclaim at a very young age for designing and building two wind turbines, one to produce electricity and the other for irrigation. His story is even more incredible when considering the adverse circumstances which gave rise to his invention. When William was 14 years old his country was struck by a terrible famine, one in a long serious of such events (link Williams's TED presentation). The drought caused his father's crops to fail, meaning William had to leave secondary school to assist the family homestead. As William says in a presentation to the TED foundation a future where his family would be forced to starve was one he simply could not accept. He then made it his unrivaled goal to self-educate himself through the local library, where he took a keen interest in science textbooks. Two of these books took his particular attention, those being (link PHYSICS book, and the other one). Bare in mind that at this point his English was fairly limited so he began teaching himself to read primarily through looking at the diagrams for an explanation of the accompanying text. Within the books he studied he came across a layout for a wind turbine that could pump water, and also, if adapted slightly could generate electricity. William realised that this machine had application for his drought stricken country. So he literally built one himself using spare pieces he managed to find lying around. These are listed below.
Wind Turbine Components:
Wind Turbine Components:
- tractor fan
- shock absorber
- bicycle frame
- PVC pipe
- bicycle lamp dynamo
William fashioned a turbine using the tractor fan and heat-flattened PVC piping. The turbine was mounted on the bicycle frame, and the lamp dynamo was fitted to generate electricity as the turbine was wind-driven. The entire turbine assembly was then mounted on a wooden-strutted mini-pylon, shown in the picture below:
His international role and partcipation:
His African role: as a leader of community. Bringing decentralised energy to a rural community. Pumping water for irrigation, generating electricity. Uplifting his village. Bringing international attention to the area. Bringing international attention to himself. Self upliftment principles.
William has brought the idea of decentralised energy generation within rural communities to fruition. In areas of a country where this technology could be used, his designs and fabrication methods could form the blueprints for future endeavours into renewable energy. Importantly, renewable energy used on this scale (link micro-scale?) is not going to run high energy demand appliances, such as electric stoves, and refrigerators. This reality has already been demonstrated where past experience from a decentralised mini solar PV plant (link), indicates that renewable energy output (in their case(same link) solar, in William's case, wind) needs to be carefully monitored and matched to demand. William was able to run four lights, one transistor radio, and recharge as many cell phones as was needed. In this application, that one small wind turbine was sufficient to satisfy the location demands
His international role and partcipation:
His African role: as a leader of community. Bringing decentralised energy to a rural community. Pumping water for irrigation, generating electricity. Uplifting his village. Bringing international attention to the area. Bringing international attention to himself. Self upliftment principles.
William has brought the idea of decentralised energy generation within rural communities to fruition. In areas of a country where this technology could be used, his designs and fabrication methods could form the blueprints for future endeavours into renewable energy. Importantly, renewable energy used on this scale (link micro-scale?) is not going to run high energy demand appliances, such as electric stoves, and refrigerators. This reality has already been demonstrated where past experience from a decentralised mini solar PV plant (link), indicates that renewable energy output (in their case(same link) solar, in William's case, wind) needs to be carefully monitored and matched to demand. William was able to run four lights, one transistor radio, and recharge as many cell phones as was needed. In this application, that one small wind turbine was sufficient to satisfy the location demands
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