Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Teen’s turbine ready to light up Kenya
A FLATPACK wind turbine invented by a 15-year-old schoolboy will be used to provide power to rural areas in Kenya.
Douglas Macartney, now 19, designed the turbine for a competition in 2018. It was conceived to generate enough electricity to power a light and two
USBS sockets in a disaster relief zone or a refugee camp.
It has since been developed into a viable prototype by undergraduates from Glasgow Caledonian University.
Students worked over several years to create the prototype, adding two solar panels. GCU is now working with other partners to bring the turbine to Kenya, where it will used to help rural communities off the grid.
Douglas designed the turbine when he was a pupil at The Royal High School in Edinburgh.
He said: “Ikea built a flatpack refugee shelter and I quite liked the simplicity of it. I thought of doing the same thing but with something that would have an energy use in a refugee camp.
“It has been amazing to see how my idea has been turned into a working prototype and developed way beyond what I thought possible.”
The project will be entitled Angaza Africa – angaza means “to give light or shine” in Swahili.