Monday, December 17, 2007

Builds a Windmill,Electrifying a Nation


by Wall Street Journal, 12th dec.2007

MASITALA, Malawi -- On a continent woefully short of electricity, 20-year-old William Kamkwamba has a dream: to power up his country one windmill at a time.

So far, he has built three windmills in his yard here, using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts. His tallest, at 39 feet, towers over this windswept village, clattering away as it powers his family's few electrical appliances: 10 six-watt light bulbs, a TV set and a radio. The machine draws in visitors from miles around.

Self-taught, Mr. Kamkwamba took up windmill building after seeing a picture of one in an old textbook. He's currently working on a design for a windmill powerful enough to pump water from wells and provide lighting for Masitala, a cluster of buildings where about 60 families live.

http://www.williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

http://www.metaefficient.com/household-building/william-kamkwambawindmill.html

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ola. gostei imenso da noticia. Se por um lado entristece ver como e com que ferramentas lutam certas pessoas por melhores condiçoes de vida, por outro anima ver que, ao contrário de baixarem os braços, levantam-nos com engenhos cheios de sonhos e esperanças.
parabéns pela noticia Anja.
beijos
Luis

Unknown said...

chulo

Unknown said...

Hey Anja,

Looks promising what he´s doing. I´m just wonder how the Wall Street Journal can publish an article on this guys effort to literarily lighten up the mood in his village, and not support him in his cause in terms of giving him a donation, or helping him to realise this more powerful windmill.

Anyway, I´ll think I´ll stop by here every once in a while since this seems like a great initiative to gather interesting stuff about architecture here, since I am pretty interested in it.

Ciao,

Vincent