+ Off the Grid

Within a year of moving to New York, it was necessary to replace the boiler in my house (there is no natural gas in our area of Long Island). Ever since that experience I have been interested in being, at least partially, off the grid. Some of that is a preparedness thing, as we have gone a week without electricity after a particularly strong fall storm.

The other day my wife showed me this article about creating electricity for parts of the world where there is no grid or limited grid power. This takes the seemingly endless supply of energy that children have and converts it to electricity. The concept is simple - using a merry go-round to create electricity for rural schools in Ghana. Most impressive.

"Portions of the merry-go-round were made from parts found at a scrap yard, which is what people have to work with in Ghana," says team leader Adrian Williams, a senior mechanical engineering major. "The project also promotes sustainable development because it is more than just lighting a schoolhouse, it is providing self-sustained education to these people so that they can be engineers and entrepreneurs themselves."

Check out the full article.