Igbo Ingenuity: Enugu to support inventor of wind turbine for power generation

Enugu to support inventor of wind turbine for power generation

News Thursday, March 29, 2012


Enugu – Enugu State Government has promised to support ingenuity of an indigene who has developed a wind turbine that generates 24 kilowatts of electricity at 10 metres per second wind speed.
Speaking at the site of the turbine at Akpuoga Nike, near Enugu, the state's Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mrs Patricia Arum, said the government would collaborate with the fabricator to diversify its energy sources.


Arum expressed happiness that the project was totally indigenous, saying it was in line with the mandate of her ministry to harness human and natural resources in the state for sustainable development.
She commended the fabricator for his ingenuity and said the state government was willing to partner with him in its quest for the industrialisation of the state.
Arum said there were serious challenges in producing electricity for the country and because of this many industries could no longer cope.

"That is why even in this state, we don't want to depend on one source of energy , so we want to encourage him. And I know our state governor will be happy to partner with him because it is part of his four-point agenda. He wants to transform the state, he wants to empower the people of Enugu State."

Speaking earlier, Mr Sabastine Omeh, the Managing Director of Hybrid Micro Machines Products Ltd., fabricators of the turbine, said the turbine was the result of two years of research which he solely financed.
Omeh, a graduate of engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said he was challenged by the energy crisis in the country and the need to develop indigenous technology.

"What you are seeing today is a product of painstaking pioneering into an alternative electric energy source to the spasmodic and epileptic electric power in this country.
"In spite of fortunes already sunken by the government and current concerted efforts, the sign is still dim that we are near out of the woods.
"By and large, only regional approach based on propinquity and potentiality of power resource bases like water, coal, wind and others, can bring about any lasting solution to our nagging power problem."

Omeh said he had perfected the design of 150kw and 500kw models which could solve the problems of rural electricity, street lighting, rural boreholes and irrigation, among others.
He said he had also designed a coal biomass turbine which was based on the surplus coal reserve in the state. "There is no doubt that with appropriate government interest, Enugu State will sooner than later join the league of bio-mass energy states."

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/mar/29/320.html

This is the sort of development that we should be hearing about.

I only have to wonder though - will this be further tested and encouraged and brought to fruition? From where can they get funds,etc?

Knowing Nigeria though...

Oh well we shall wait and see.

Talent is from God,i believe each and every Nigerian was born with one or two talents especially the Igbos,it's just unfortunate that our leadersrulers are blind folded not to see the talents on us and develop them,rather they are all busy looting and looting and looting,they keep looting until nothing will be left for the poor.

very soon hater will jumb in to tell us that it was assembled in china. very soon hater will jumb in to tell us that it was assembled in china.

Funny people.

Terrible title since Wind Turbines of higher generation capacities exist and have been in use in many parts of the world for decades now. China current has turbines that generat more than 60k MW installed and running.

Great that the state has chosen to support his move, more money needs to go to research and development at the state level. While I support that, I do hope the state chooses to invest the bulk of power generation money in purchase of already tested and working units sold by reputable companies that know what they are doing.

tripple thumbs up 2 d igbo tribe 4 its industrial innovativeness. I sincerely believe dat if dis country is ruled by an Igbo elite we would be rubbing shoulders wit Japan. TRue talk coming from a Niger Deltan! ;-)

Malawi windmill boy with big fans


William Kamkwamba educated himself in his local library

By Jude Sheerin
BBC News

The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over.
His against-all-odds achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the $80-a-year (£50) fees.
When he returned to his parents' small plot of farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala, his future seemed limited.
But this was not another tale of African potential thwarted by poverty.
Defence against hunger
The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village.



Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy - people thought I was smoking marijuana
William Kamkwamba
And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him.
The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi's worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.
Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library.
Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill.
Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: "I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.
"I thought: 'That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself'."
When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings.
But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people.
"Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy," he recalls. "They had never seen a windmill before."
Shocks
Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips.


William Kamkwamba's achievements with wind energy show what one person, with an inspired idea, can do to tackle the crisis we face
Al Gore
"People thought I was smoking marijuana," he said. "So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].' Then they said: 'Ah, I see.'"
Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire.
"I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill]," says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work.
The finished product - a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala - seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer's folly.
But his neighbours' mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine.
As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild.
Soon the whiz kid's 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family's mud brick compound.
'Electric wind'
Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber.
Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones.

WINDS OF CHANGE
2002: Drought strikes; he leaves school; builds 5m windmill
2006: Daily Times writes article on him; he builds a 12m windmill
2007: Brings solar power to his village and installs solar pump
Mid-2008: Builds Green Machine windmill, pumping well water
Sep 2008: Attends inaugural African Leadership Academy class
Mid-2009: Builds replica of original 5m windmill
Mr Kamkwamba's story was sent hurtling through the blogosphere when a reporter from the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote an article about him in November 2006.
Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village.
He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites.
Then he built a new windmill, dubbed the Green Machine, which turned a water pump to irrigate his family's field.
Before long, visitors were traipsing from miles around to gawp at the boy prodigy's magetsi a mphepo - "electric wind".
As the fame of his renewable energy projects grew, he was invited in mid-2007 to the prestigious Technology Entertainment Design conference in Arusha, Tanzania.
Cheetah generation
He recalls his excitement using a computer for the first time at the event.
"I had never seen the internet, it was amazing," he says. "I Googled about windmills and found so much information."
Onstage, the native Chichewa speaker recounted his story in halting English, moving hard-bitten venture capitalists and receiving a standing ovation.

William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (left) spent a year writing the book
A glowing front-page portrait of him followed in the Wall Street Journal.
He is now on a scholarship at the elite African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mr Kamkwamba - who has been flown to conferences around the globe to recount his life-story - has the world at his feet, but is determined to return home after his studies.
The home-grown hero aims to finish bringing power, not just to the rest of his village, but to all Malawians, only 2% of whom have electricity.
"I want to help my country and apply the knowledge I've learned," he says. "I feel there's lots of work to be done."
Former Associated Press news agency reporter Bryan Mealer had been reporting on conflict across Africa for five years when he heard Mr Kamkwamba's story.
The incredible tale was the kind of positive story Mealer, from New York, had long hoped to cover.
The author spent a year with Mr Kamkwamba writing The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which has just been published in the US.
Mealer says Mr Kamkwamba represents Africa's new "cheetah generation", young people, energetic and technology-hungry, who are taking control of their own destiny.
"Spending a year with William writing this book reminded me why I fell in love with Africa in the first place," says Mr Mealer, 34.
"It's the kind of tale that resonates with every human being and reminds us of our own potential."
Can it be long before the film rights to the triumph-over-adversity story are snapped up, and William Kamkwamba, the boy who dared to dream, finds himself on the big screen?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8257153.stm

Kobojunkie: Terrible title since Wind Turbines of higher generation capacities exist and have been in use in many parts of the world for decades now. China current has turbines that generat more than 60k MW installed and running.

Great that the state has chosen to support his move, more money needs to go to research and development at the state level. While I support that, I do hope the state chooses to invest the bulk of power generation money in purchase of already tested and working units sold by reputable companies that know what they are doing.

ArQueBusieR: Funny people.

Terrible indeed. Since Aeroplane of high generation capacities exist and have been in use in many parts of the world for decades now. America currently has Jumbo jets that carries 1million people. So, it will be nonsensical and insensitive for anybody to think he have done something significant by personaly sourcing, financing and building an aeroplane in Nigeria. a

Yeah, tell us more about China and Malawi and discredit whatever Ndigbo make. I thought you should be telling us what you lots are making even if at a lower capacity to what the guy in the article made. Bunch of haters.

Yeske!:
Yeah, tell us more about China and Malawi and discredit whatever Ndigbo make. I thought you should be telling us what you lots are making even if at a lower capacity to what the guy in the article made. Bunch of haters.

Don't get carried away with empty chest beating. It's been done by a pretty smart Malawian Kid. Have you heard of any Malawian boasting about how they are more resourceful than their neigbours? No! To some people, modesty is a virtue.

kenis:

Terrible indeed. Since Aeroplane of high generation capacities exist and have been in use in many parts of the world for decades now. America currently has Jumbo jets that carries 1million people. So, it will be nonsensical and insensitive for anybody to think he have done something significant by personaly sourcing, financing and building an aeroplane in Nigeria. a

What I think is nonsensical is your attempt to put down a post you did not even bother reading. Calm your brain down, READ and then come back with a better rebuttal.

Aigbofa:

Don't get carried away with empty chest beating. It's been done by a pretty smart Malawian Kid. Have you heard of any Malawian boasting about how they are more resourceful than their neigbours? No! To some people, modesty is a virtue.

You hadn't answered my question yet, read my post then reply.
Thanks.

Yeske!:
Yeah, tell us more about China and Malawi and discredit whatever Ndigbo make. I thought you should be telling us what you lots are making even if at a lower capacity to what the guy in the article made. Bunch of haters.

This is not about discrediting Ibos and not. The fact is this technology is NOT NEW, PERIOD!!! Now, since this man has chosen to create one of these wind mills, here's hoping that more and more people will wake up to technology that has been available to them for decades.

These days, any highschooler in Africa can find an internet shop, log online, print out a DIY of wind generators, and build one at home using scrap metals, wood and wire. We used to have wood shop classes and shops back in the days, in our schools. I remember learning how to build a toy car in one of my classes. Learnt what a solenoid was too. This could easily be a woodshop project.

Kobojunkie:

This is not about discrediting Ibos and not. The fact is this technology is NOT NEW, PERIOD!!! Now, since this man has chosen to create one of these wind mills, here's hoping that more and more people will wake up to technology that has been available to them for decades.

These days, any highschooler in Africa can find an internet shop, log online, print out a DIY of wind generators, and build one at home using scrap metals, wood and wire. We used to have wood shop classes and shops back in the days, in our schools. I remember learning how to build a toy car in one of my classes. Learnt what a solenoid was too. This could easily be a woodshop project.

Now you're talking, really don't need lectures about a teenager in Malawi or China producing one with a higher capacity. Give honour to whom it is due.

bla bla, yada yada. Hey enugu chap, get me 24 hour power supply and i'd sing "Up igbos" all the way.

But to be honest, Nanos, I think you guys should try toning it down on the excessive tribal howls, et al.
Just a lil' bit

PS: This is coming from an Igbo

Yeske!:
Now you're talking, really don't need lectures about a teenager in Malawi or China producing one with a higher capacity. Give honour to whom it is due.

You may not like it but that is a fact. We are fond of pretending each time we get our act together, or at least one of us does, he/she deserves a big award for it. Go online and see the many videos, tutorials available for free to help people solve many problems out there. Yet, instead our youth spend their time online chasing skirts/shorts, and more skirts/shorts, and thinking of silly ways to get noticed for doing near nothing spectacular, so other Nigerians can shower em with cheap praise that is the custom.

I really do not see why we never seem to wake up from this delusion that anytime we realize what the world, even many in other poor nations have for a long time, we have won for ourselves a right to beat our chests like gorillas,all over the place.

Kobojunkie: Terrible title since Wind Turbines of higher generation capacities exist and have been in use in many parts of the world for decades now. China current has turbines that generat more than 60k MW installed and running.

Great that the state has chosen to support his move, more money needs to go to research and development at the state level. While I support that, I do hope the state chooses to invest the bulk of power generation money in purchase of already tested and working units sold by reputable companies that know what they are doing.

maybe they should buy the ones made in osun state....agric monkey. Vengeful buffalo

More thn any people in africa the igbo have proven to have everything it takes to make an impact on the world. If civilization collapsed ndigbo are the only ones in nigeria that would be able to rebuild and carry on. Say all you want but 30 years ago enugu was being starved, shelled, and bombarded by nigeria egypt the uk and russia till it was burn to the ground and today its 3000 miles ahead of anything in nigeria outside of lagos and abuja and keeps getting stronger. Things like this make it all the more visible. Yes its being made in china , all that means is we have what it tkaes to stand toe to toe with the chinese. If it was an easy feat ondo state would have done it as well. As it stands igbo land is producing solar panels cars buses boats computers and tvs among everything else. You can hate but were to only ones brining pride to nigeria. Your hateful posts will be forgotten once everyone remembers an igbo woman is on the verge of being the world bank head and an igbo man was runner up for being the pope 6 years ago. If igbo success hurts you you're destiny will be painful.

Every Nigerian knows that electric power is a major problem. It does not sound good at all that the news of a Nigerian fabricating a Wind turbine for power generation is being greeting with such jealousy and hatred. Can't something good come out of Nigeria? Are we gonna remain a consumer nation forever...consuming every manufactured products from other countries? Or are lesser a country? Are we inferior? Many products from Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Indian, S.Korean,etc have been produced before by Europeans, Americans & Japanese but they relentlessly started with the so called 'taiwan'version but evidently they produced it themselves. Indian TATA would not have gone into commercial production of vehicles because it has been done before by Japanese/koreans... is that what is meant?. We should not be joy killers by bringing such comparison about a Malawian boy who did similar thing, instead we should encourage the feat. Think of how to help this country yourselves. Nigeria seriously need help. Do not mind the government for they dont know what they are doing. Let's look inward, identify and encourage such talents. Bill Gates wasnt the first person to know about computing neither is Steve Job; but they are well celebrated by their people (Americans) and the world over. Let our positive brand also be nutured to limelight and not drug trafficking,419, fraud, kidnapping,bribery, corruption, etc. Are we doomed?

Ikengawo: maybe they should buy the ones made in osun state....agric monkey. Vengeful buffalo

That one na your mama and your papa you dey talk to so.

If you no like my post, go jump inside well make those with common sense live their lives.. . .


as I was saying . . .

Kobojunkie:

You may not like it but that is a fact. We are fond of pretending each time we get our act together, or at least one of us does, he/she deserves a big award for it. Go online and see the many videos, tutorials available for free to help people solve many problems out there. Yet, instead our youth spend their time online chasing skirts/shorts, and more skirts/shorts, and thinking of silly ways to get noticed for doing near nothing spectacular, so other Nigerians can shower em with cheap praise that is the custom.

I really do not see why we never seem to wake up from this delusion that anytime we realize what the world, even many in other poor nations have for a long time, we have won for ourselves a right to beat our chests like gorillas,all over the place.

Kudos to the guy. This is the kind of news that are sweet to my ears. I almost fainted with joy the day i visited Enugu and boarded the INNOSON IVM buses built in NIgeria here with european standard A/c. I am sure that Enugu state government will take this project up. They dont wait for oil allocations like Katsina and co. They do things for themselves.

ibo 'ingenuity' will 'invent' a car soon, watch

I dont really see this as an invention but an innovation, and like every other innovation people will resist it, when when Alternating Current electricity was stepped up to 240 Vso it could be transmitted over longer distances to many homes, Cynics (like the ones online) resisted it among reasons they offered was that it will kill people in thier homes , it will kill the candle industry e.t.c

What Enugu and the east can do is to see how a coalition of Innovators like the Wind mill and sundry innovators can come together to solve the Electricity Issues in the East , very soon the whole world will migrate to electric cars and oil industry might shrink to be like the coal industry what then will Nigerians who are addicted to European and chinese goods do then . Little wonder some regions of Nigeria despite not having any history of Genocide, war, Natural disaster , sunami , earthquake, Erosion , abandoned property have nothing to offer Nigeria and the world except deriding and castigating other people who have impacted the world like Emeagwali,Iweala, Nnaji,Innoson

This a step in the right direction, no matter how small.

Ordinary Nigerians are thinking outside of the box to solve our obvious challenges. Even where we adapt or replicate what others have done, or later develop it further. Lets not forget we are buying palm oil from a nation who saw palm fruits in Africa and saw it fit to develop it.

If, for example we could find a way of cheaply producing solar panels/energy (even though solar panels already exist)...............perhaps Nigerians could have access to it rather than being at the mercy of Chinese producers who sell us solar panels that do not even work. We could for once meet our own needs, rather than being perpetual consumers for others.

I just hope the gov of the state/individuals will give the much needed support to this project and others like it.

There have been many Nigerian youngsters in times past, who have shown this same promise, but today we wonder what happened to them and their achievement, simply because they were not supported and so their inventions/innovations (or whatever label you feel comfortable giving them) did not grow to become useful to those around them or the nation at large. Even if it is village by village or local gov by local gov, it is worth doing, because it is meeting a need organically.

Its high time we become insular on both a state/regional levels and as a nation. The time to stop doing what we have been unable to get benefit from, and think outside of the box we have be-clouded our definition of "progress" with.

That begins with giving support that we can give to these projects.......even if that is just with a word of encouragement with the knowledge that ALL true innovators/inventors need to be encouraged to persevere.

It is a very good idea for state governments across Nigeria to invest in research and innovative competitions within their states..........to invest in the innovative minds of Nigerians to come up with products etc that begin to deal with our challenges of which we have many head on.

I know some do already, but I think this is one area which needs to be consistently invested in.

Not just those at university, but anyone who has an innovators/inventors mind.

nanos: Igbo Ingenuity: Enugu to support inventor of wind turbine for power generation

Enugu to support inventor of wind turbine for power generation

News Thursday, March 29, 2012


Enugu – Enugu State Government has promised to support ingenuity of an indigene who has developed a wind turbine that generates 24 kilowatts of electricity at 10 metres per second wind speed.
Speaking at the site of the turbine at Akpuoga Nike, near Enugu, the state's Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mrs Patricia Arum, said the government would collaborate with the fabricator to diversify its energy sources.


Arum expressed happiness that the project was totally indigenous, saying it was in line with the mandate of her ministry to harness human and natural resources in the state for sustainable development.
She commended the fabricator for his ingenuity and said the state government was willing to partner with him in its quest for the industrialisation of the state.
Arum said there were serious challenges in producing electricity for the country and because of this many industries could no longer cope.

"That is why even in this state, we don't want to depend on one source of energy , so we want to encourage him. And I know our state governor will be happy to partner with him because it is part of his four-point agenda. He wants to transform the state, he wants to empower the people of Enugu State."

Speaking earlier, Mr Sabastine Omeh, the Managing Director of Hybrid Micro Machines Products Ltd., fabricators of the turbine, said the turbine was the result of two years of research which he solely financed.
Omeh, a graduate of engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said he was challenged by the energy crisis in the country and the need to develop indigenous technology.

"What you are seeing today is a product of painstaking pioneering into an alternative electric energy source to the spasmodic and epileptic electric power in this country.
"In spite of fortunes already sunken by the government and current concerted efforts, the sign is still dim that we are near out of the woods.
"By and large, only regional approach based on propinquity and potentiality of power resource bases like water, coal, wind and others, can bring about any lasting solution to our nagging power problem."

Omeh said he had perfected the design of 150kw and 500kw models which could solve the problems of rural electricity, street lighting, rural boreholes and irrigation, among others.
He said he had also designed a coal biomass turbine which was based on the surplus coal reserve in the state. "There is no doubt that with appropriate government interest, Enugu State will sooner than later join the league of bio-mass energy states."

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/mar/29/320.html

Inventor of electric wind turbines? Well wind turbines that can generate electricity had already been invented - for centuries.

A single wind turbine that can generate 24kva of electricity from a 10m/s? Either the turbine is as high as the empire state building or it works with miracles or juju.

In line with mandate to harness natural resources of Enugu? Never knew enugu was in the wind zone. Thought that the the most abundant natural resource of enugu is COAL.

Few egocentric, low esteemed, illiterate and tribalistic igbos are giving the general igbos a very bad name, with igbos are the best this, the best that and others are inferior. This will make people mistrust the igbos.

Some people can hate jor. The same people whom couldn't think of a way to save themselves out of the electricity problem occurring in Nigeria are the same people criticizing and ridiculing those that are trying to save themselves. I laugh in Nigeria. The saying, the biggest enemy of a black man is another black man isn't that farfetched after all. Let them continue hating, while East keep innovating and moving forward. Wetin concern una with the hatred? Why una they pay attention? If no one hates on you then you are not doing good things. Keep pulling unaselves forward, if them want, let they remain backwards. Shikena!!

@ OP
I admire Enugu state for the innovation and the state investing in this man invention. I feel all Igbo state should invest and contribute as much as they can to this man. If he's able to fix the power shortage una experience daily, make sure to keep it within east since the other fools want to stomp on others achievement.

For those of you who have brothers/sisters in Nigerian schools, especially in the area of Engineering, back home. Here is a good website to send them if they want to make themselves useful. It is instructables.com. The site has tons of ideas on how to build simple solutions using scraps and materials that are available to them. For those materials that are not, that is where you who are abroad come in. You can simply drive to the local homedepot, or DIY store to purchase for them other parts they may need for their projects.

Instead of helping them with money for bills, and new phones etc. Help them instead to start helping themselves better.

Here is a good one on how to build a wind turbine at home.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-I-built-an-electricity-producing-wind-turbine/

Renewable routes to generate energy is the future. Everything from Solar energy, wind turbine, wave or Thermal energy. Anything but burning fossil fuel and creating polluton.

daz igbo brain!!!