WindLift Power

Bruno Giussani has a really interesting blog called, “Lunch Over IP, Running Notes on People, Places, Technology, and Ideas“

The July 5, 2007 article has a piece on Ethan Zuckerman’s “Incremental infrastructure, or how mobile phones might wire Africa”

In the meantime, mobile phone networks are turning to other creative solutions to power their towers in the absence of reliable grid power. Afrigadget reports that Winafrique Technologies in Nairobi is designing windmills that power remote mobile towers as a complement to diesel power, cutting fuel costs by 70-95% a year. These are relatively small windmills – 7.5 kWatts – but may serve as proof positive of the utility of wind for power in rural Africa.

This is pretty amazing stuff. The article talks about how cell phone companies in Africa were able to build a multi-Billion dollar cell phone network incrementally. The other interesting part is how these cell phone towers are powered by diesel generators (at great expense), and are backed up by grid power. This is not an uncommon problem in Africa.  Because the government maintained grid-electric is so poorly managed people who can afford it maintain diesel generators that kick-in automatically when the grid fails.

Think about this…  Instead of maintaining expensive diesel generators and supplying them with backup fuel, an elevated water reservoir could be used to store the excess energy from a WindLift Pumping System.   A small micro-hydro plant  could convert that stored potential energy to electricity when required to run the cell tower.  Micro-hydro requires a large height between the water source and the generating turbine (the head).  One approach would be to build an elevated reservoir, another would be to mount the micro hydro plant in the bottom of a deep well (above the water-table) and have the reservoir be a plastic lined hole dug at the surface.

After poking around Lunch over IP I found a May 26, 2006 post Bruno did an article on the paper, “”Income is development” by Martin Fisher that can be found in full in PDF.

Bruno quotes a section of the paper in full, and I am going to do the same. This is good stuff, and I am taking notes.

* The number one need of the poor is a way to make money. The time of subsistence economies is over.
* To assist people anywhere you have to understand their circumstances. In our business as in any other, we need to understand our customers’ circumstances and what they need to change those circumstances for the better. We need to provide them with what they need to make their own choices — a way to make money — not what we think they should have.
* There are no jobs. Developing countries have very small private sectors — and until these countries improve their governance, the private sectors will grow only slowly.
* The solution is in the people’s drive and determination. The rise of the informal sector shows that poor people in developing countries are willing to start their own businesses.
* People in poor places need money-making business models and technologies. With little access to information on business models and very few affordable capital tools, the rural poor lack the opportunity to start profitable businesses.
* Technology is important for job creation and economic growth. New technologies can open up whole new productive and value-adding industries — and growth on this scale is what is needed to eradicate poverty.
* Micro-finance is very useful but is not enough. Small loans — without sound business models and the technologies to run them — will not by themselves end poverty. Pairing credit with business models and capital equipment will increase the benefits of both.
* Entrepreneurs in poor places need high-quality technologies and designs. People are investing significant money. Products must perform as promised and last a long time.
* People need to know about and be able to access the new business models and technologies. Marketing to isolated people in poor places is a large challenge—but is just as important as creating the technologies.
* Sell the technologies, don’t give them away. Those who buy tools are more likely to use them than those who receive them for free. This is true anywhere.
* Do high-quality mass production in medium-or large-sized factories. Only these facilities can provide the economies ofscale or the consistent quality needed .
* Establish a private-sector profit-making supply chain. This is the most efficient way of delivering goods and services.It endures only when the work is profitable for all.
* Target individuals, not groups and communities. In general, groups don’t do a good job of sharing and maintaining a productive asset. People in poor places are like people anywhere else: they will take care of their own families’ needs before they will commit themselves to efforts to better their communities.

KickStart is an amazing organization, and I hope to be able to work with them someday.