Flat-pack wind turbine that could be life-saver – by inventor aged 15
USUALLY it involves much head-scratching over instructions for build-your-own bits of furniture.
But the ‘flat-pack’ world will never quite be the same again, thanks to an invention by a 15-year-old Scottish schoolboy – a wind turbine that can be assembled without any specialist skills.
In the finest traditions of Scottish engineering, Douglas Macartney designed the turbine for a competition in 2018 and it has since been developed into a viable prototype by undergraduate engineers at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).
The device is intended for use in areas which are recovering from natural disasters and for rural settlements far from a grid connection.
GCU is working with other partners to bring the turbine to Kenya, where it will help rural communities.
Douglas, now 19, designed the turbine when he was a pupil at The Royal High School in Edinburgh. He said: ‘Ikea built a flat-pack refugee shelter and I 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’s been amazing to see how my idea on paper has been turned into a working prototype.’
The GCU project is one of 64 sharing in a £26million UK Government energy funding programme. GCU will partner with DeCourcy Alexander, a London-based sustainable innovation consultancy, and E-Safiri Charging, a Kenyan company that focuses on innovative solutions to provide access to sustainable energy. Andrew Cowell, a senior lecturer at GCU, said the portable wind turbine ‘was conceived to generate enough electricity to power a light and two USB sockets in a disaster relief zone or a refugee camp’.
He said the local community would be trained how to build and use the device, adding: ‘Ultimately, there are plans to try to manufacture it in Kenya.’
The project is due to start on March 1 and will run for 12 months.