Pedal power to bring electricity to nomads, tribals

Concept by Vidnyan Ashram, Pabal and Save Bombay Committee wins World Bank’s $ 20,000 award; targets 42 schools, 12 camps
Nomads and tribals in power-scarcity hit areas may soon be pedalling their way to light with a cycle which produces electricity.

This invention, by the Vidnyan Ashram, Pabal near Pune and the Save Bombay Committee (SBC), won an award at a countrywide competition organised by the World Bank at Delhi last month.

The project, titled 'Human power based lighting solution for nomadic and tribal people' makes use of a bicycle to generate up to four hours of electricity with 30 minutes of cycling.

"Seven per cent of India's population is nomadic and because they are always on the move, they do not have constant access to electricity. Even the tribal schools that are located in far-flung areas have power cuts causing a lot of problems to students," says Yogesh Kulkarni of Vidnyan Ashram, who along with Harshad Kamdar and Dilip Sankarreddy of SBC ideated the concept. They have been perfecting the cycle for more than a year, making use of a portable generator unit weighing less than three kg that can be attached to any cycle. "Even if a person cycles or just pedals for 15 minutes, 10 W of power is generated. And by using this for energy efficient LED lamps, 2 W of power is consumed per hour," says Kamdar.

The project will now receive

$ 20,000 as award money from the World Bank by the end of July, after which Kulkarni, Sankarreddy and Kamdar will try to improve the efficiency of the cycle and bring down the cost. A total of 20 ideas from across the country were selected for this contest.

In this two-year project, the team will devote the first six months to installing six such bicycles in six Adivasi Ashram Shalas (tribal schools) and collect the data through trials. In the later stages, they will try to bring down the costs. The target price for the attachment is Rs 2,000. "We wish to sell this apparatus to the Adivasi Ashram Shalas at a 50 percent subsidy and will start working towards that soon," says Sankarreddy. The team has set a target of 42 Ashram Shalas and 12 nomadic camps to install these bicycles over the next two years.

They are also trying to fix mobile phone chargers in the apparatus with the same technology. "Today, most nomads and tribals have cell phones, but to get them charged at local stores, it costs them at least Rs 5. If we can improvise on this model, we could help them charge their cell phone for free while cycling," says Kulkarni.

The greening of the data center

Vendors have jumped onto the green bandwagon. It is believed At this point it’s more hype than reality but that soon green IT technologies will make their way into the corporate data center as IT heads are aware of the savings that green technologies confer.

Former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Prize winner for his work on global warming Al Gore preaches the good word. HP, IBM, Sun and others tech giants sell it. A good number of businesses are buying into it. We are talking about green IT. Companies globally have been forced to go green or at least some shade resembling that color thanks to governmental diktat. It’s the information technology industry’s turn now. Are we there yet? Not really. Therein hangs a tale.

Tech vendors, the press, and yes, industry analysts have latched onto crisis language to describe power and space shortages in corporate data centers. Christopher Mines, Senior Vice President, Forrester Research said, “Let’s all calm down. Tech marketers push green by hyping a crisis in corporate data centers. We surveyed enterprise IT professionals and found a moderate level of interest in improving energy efficiency in their data centers, but nothing that warrants the ‘crisis’ label. It’s in everyone’s interest to tone down the language and keep the focus on realistic assessments and initiatives to improve efficiency and greenness in corporate data centers.”

Let us look at some headlines...

“IBM Unveils Plan to Combat Data Center Energy Crisis.”

“Gartner Predicts Data Center Power and Cooling Crisis.”

“Coping with Data Centers in Crisis”

“Research shows that more than 70 percent of customers are in crisis mode, unable to properly cool the gear they need to meet their business goals.”

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The Sarai cooker

Ever thought that the waste in your garden can save you and the Government some real money?

Here's how....The ARTI manufactured Sarai cooker shown in the album below does exactly that.

It uses coal which you make at home and that too from the dry leaves and similar waste that piles up in your garden.



ARTI,the organization who manufacture this cooker have got an Ashden award for the briquette technology.

Details could be found at http://www.arti-india.org/content/view/65/65/

I have a Sarai cooker at home and am trying to convince my family to use it.The biggest problem is the convenience and speed provided by LPG.But the Sarai cooker is not much difficult either and the low speed at which it cooks food is actually beneficial to our health.

Currently,LPG cylinders are highly subsidized and the government loses around 600 rupees per cyliner.

We all have experienced the shortage of cylinders during the festive seasons.There also have been fatal accidents at times.

So why not switch to a technology which is pretty safe,does not force the government to subsidize it and is based on something which you can manufacture in your backyard.

Think about it..It may be a little difficult to start..but once you get used to it,it's fun.

It could well be our small contribution towards tackling Global warming.

Ban the Bulb !

Greenpeace is gathering 1 million petitions to force our Government to Ban the Bulb. Simply sign the petition below to join us in fighting climate change.

Click Here to sign the petition