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Uganda's Story:
From beginning to end… stay tuned

Here are the first set of image slide shows of our work in progress. On each trip, we take more professional pictures. Please have patience with us. We are almost there and when we arrive at our goal, we will accomplish two things: (1) we will teach other technical institutes and polytechnics how it can be done - 56 institutes in Uganda alone - and (2) we will build these devices for the market and start selling them. Please click on the Next and Back arrows to see all the images in the six slide shows.

The first slide show illustrates our four stage teaching, learning, building, designing, and empowering methodology. The pictures give the reader a feel for our work and overall mission. Please stayed tuned as we update the images and slide shows.

Our mission is to empower design at technical institutes and universities where electrical energy crises occur on a yearly, monthly, weekly, and yes, even daily basis. During a crisis, necessity is truly the mother of invention.
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Bicycle Generators

The second slide show contains snap shots of the bicycle generators. This design has been now built in MPala Wildlife Foundation in Kenya with Peter Muhoro and the villagers are using it everyday to charge their batteries.

This is the first bicycle generator co-designed and built. It is our alpha 1 prototype as the term is used by engineers and innovators.
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Merry-Go-Round Generators

The third slide show contains snap shots of the merry-go-round generator. This design has been designed for schools which do not have access to electricity or cannot afford to pay the high electricity bills.

Brigham Young University has an empowering merry-go-round generator for schools in Ghana, but it is currently imported. The parts are hoped to be repaired, but as Dr. Mechtenberg has researched… unless one uses the parts found in country, there is no guarantee that it will be repaired. Our design is based on local parts purchased. However, BYU illustrates that this device not only works, it is empowering schools to learning about charging and discharging battery cycles and how to share the electricity freely.
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Vertical Wind Turbine

The fourth slide show contains snap shots of the vertical wind turbine. This design will not work with the car alternator and a special "well-matched" generator is being built with permanent magnets and coils. The rewinders are very excited to finish this project. Next trip we are going to start the horizontal wind turbine design.

Behind us is our second major project. The vertical wind turbine works mechanically perfectly. The locally available high rpm generators and alternators are not matched well to it. So, this led us to design and build our own low rpm generators. The rewinders are currently working on designing and building a low rpm generator for this wind turbine.
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Microhydroelectric Generator

The fifth slide show contains snap shots of the microhydroelectric generator. This design was machined at the technical school from beginning to end (not using parts from vehicles). This design will not work with the car alternator and a special "well-matched" generator is being built with permanent magnets and coils. The rewinders are very excited to finish this second "alternator" project as well.

This group first designed and built the water tower as well as the little water turbine. Their idea for the first design is to build for customers who own and operate a water tank next to rivers and/or streams. These customers have a mechanical pump which uses the kinetic energy of the river/stream to pump water into the tank. When the water runs out, first the customer will generate electricity for a small battery as well as use the water for cleaning, cooking, etc.
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Surgical Lamp with Hand-Crank Generator

The sixth slide show contains snap shots of the surgical lamp with hand-crank generator. This design will be tested at a hospital where the grid goes off during surgery (theatre) and at a health clinic which is not connected to electricity. During an electricity crisis, human power can be good for lighting, cell phone charging, running laptops and small printers, and small refrigerators (1-50 Watts). This design is the first electrical device for health care.

During interviews that Dr. Mechtenberg sought in Ghana, there were stories in top-notch hospitals where the electricity went off and it took too long for the diesel generators to turn on. During this time, one person in heart surgery died. The back-up little flashlight had dead batteries. A simple back-up hand-crank flashlight would have saved this person. In health clinics, doctors try to wait until day time to do a surgery. Sometimes they must open the patient with kerosene candles. Some health clinics have solar panels donated, but these panels have a high theft rate. Others use petrol or diesel generators, but they have to be maintained regularly and it is very expensive per kWh (the most costly way to generate electricity).
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Rewinders… Unique Key to Electricity Generators

The seventh slide show contains snap shots of the rewinders working on designing and winding coils. The title "Rewinder" is a very special trade name in parts of Africa because they rewind generators when they are overloaded and overheat (i.e. short). Technical Institutes and Polytechnics train them to wind them by hand and they are paid well for their expertise because petrol and diesel generators are so important for (1) back-up electricity devices for the unreliable electric grid and (2) generating devices for areas without access to the electric grid.