Innovation that's far more impressive than the best out of Silicon Valley

Forget about the multi-million dollar social networking sites springing up in California, and forget about the iPhone for a while.  Here's a story of real innovation.

Meet William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi:

Forced to drop out of school because it was too expensive, William resorted to reading the books at the library of his primary school.  There he read about how to build a windmill to produce electricity--which he decided to build himself!

With pvc pipes, scrap wood, the frame of an old bicycle, and a bicycle dynamo (the generator that powers bicycle headlights), William created a functional windmill that charges a 12 volt battery. 

That energy lights 4 lights in his house, 2 radios and a mobile phone charger.  It also has made his family energy-independent!

The total cost? Around $16.

(GDP per capital is only $596, so this is a more significant sum than it appears.)

What's so refreshing about this story is that it shows an intelligent young man who, when faced with a dead end, chose to use his creativity to find a new way forward.

Here's what he did:

For the original windmill blades, William sliced open a large pvc pipe with a hacksaw, and then heated it over a fire until the plastic was soft enough to be straightened.  To store energy, he attached an old car battery to the windmill.

It's also fascinating to see how he makes changes.  After the windmill blew over in a storm, breaking some of the blades, William decided that steel blades would be a more reliable option.  But he didn't buy them from a store.

On his blog, William writes:

This past week, while working on a project in my neighborhood, I took an old oil drum to the tinsmith at the trading center and asked him to help me cut it into new blades.

I bolted the new, metal blades to the tractor fan wheel that serves as the windmill blades' base, and hoisted them back into position.

Amazing, isn't it?

I have to admit, even though I adore market-changing innovations that take the world by storm, I'm always far more impressed with people who stretch their creativity to create things out of materials most of us would consider junk.

Please go over to check out his blog at http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/.

Comments

[Daniel Sitter, Idea Seller]

Thank you Katie for publicizing the fact that innovation and creativity are alive and well! Just imagine what William could do if he had a larger grouping of raw materials to choose from. What an inspiration!

Fantastically, William's story is getting him a lot of attention and he now has sponsors to help him create more windmills into town, and to provide money for him to get to school.

So everyone visit his blog and encourage him!