Wind energy is the theme of the day here. Actually it is not, but the spectacular wind structure that I saw earlier today was so amazing that it almost convinces you that nothing else can steal the show for the day. Well, the day is almost drawing to a close and as I thought nothing else has come close for me. The design by David Fisher has been really awesome, but we do keep moving on with the wind theme for the day. This time, it is not something as spectacular as earlier, but far more noble and something that will finally light up some villages in some remote corner of the world.
A set of volunteer engineers went down to Guatemala to design and implement something that would light up many homes. They designed a low cost wind turbine that looks really simple and is also really effective. This design has already come up today and the curved blades are nothing new for those following the field. What is new though is the material used for making of this turbine. It seems that only the simplest of plastics along with a simple electromagnetic generator were used.
It is really nice to see that the ecology is being matched with the economy to create green solutions that are useful to those who cannot even reach and use the conventional products. It has been renewable energy that has always been accused of not being affordable for the ordinary man. Now it is going to the poor and the needy and there is a big lesson to be learnt in that. If you put your creativity to it, you can damn sure change perceptions.
