So you couldn’t get a visa to Ghana, misplaced your tickets to Accra, didn’t have an up-to-date yellow fever shot or for some other reason couldn’t make it to Maker Faire Africa…Well lose that sad face, the feed is just beginning. It always seems that during amazing events like Maker Faire, the online coverage doesn’t […]
Continue ReadingSolarAid – 100 People – Brave Mhouie from Solar Aid on Vimeo. SolarAid is a Non Governmental Organization dedicated to bringing the power of the sun to people living in places that are just simply beyond the reach of such modern technologies as the electric grid. Their website has a wealth of information about solar […]
Continue ReadingAt a workshop on Lighting Africa at last year’s Solarfest, the argument for renewable low voltage lighting made an impression on me. One of the slides really stuck with me, showing how people adopted cell phones in Kenya, demonstrating that if a new technology becomes obviously essential, people will adopt it in huge crowds. Lighting […]
Continue ReadingIn Malawi, like in many other developing countries, the bicycle is king for transportation and cargo carrying. The bikes we saw a few years ago were primarily Chinese or Indian manufactured. They looked like the old 3 speeds once widely available in the states. On the back of nearly every one was a sturdy steel […]
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Photo from Petmar0 on Flickr Pete responded in the comments to the the call for designs in the Rural Celly Charger article on Saturday. How about connecting a joule-thief circuit (DC-DC upconverter) to a cap on one side and a small solar cell (like the ones in calculators) on the other? You pull off of […]
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Next to an intersection with the main road to Mulanje works a group of men with basic tools. One of them was actively welding with a scratch built arc welder. Wire was wrapped around a group of metal plates, and the whole thing was housed in a basic wooden frame. To turn it on, the […]
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