Low-cost windmill turning heads at GU
Engineering program’s alternative technology projects will serve energy, resource needs in Africa
A small windmill built from 50-gallon plastic barrels and other junkyard castoffs will help solve energy needs and lead to better living standards in Kitale, Kenya.
The clunky-looking structure, designed for a single African home, produces electricity at wind speeds of 10 mph and is just one of several sustainable technology projects designed by Gonzaga University engineering students. This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rewarded their efforts with a $10,000 grant.
Other projects include grain-drying and storage bins, solar panels that heat water for cooking, and a system that collects rainwater for drinking.
A few of the projects involve “some pretty sophisticated technologies,” said Patrick McCormick, a senior in civil engineering who adapted the grain-drying and storage bins from silos in Whitman County. “We’re trying to design them on a Third World scale.”
Gilbert Nalelia provides a Kenyan perspective. The adjunct GU engineering professor is from Kitale, a city of 100,000 people about 300 miles from Nairobi.
Farmers grow corn and wheat in the rich agricultural region. But daily life is a struggle; electricity is unreliable, and most residents lack clean drinking water. Gonzaga is involved in an effort led by Spokane Rotarian Paul Zimmerman to manufacture affordable clay water filters in Kitale. The alternative technologies crafted by students will complement the water-filter endeavor, said Phil Appel, a GU professor of mechanical engineering.
Kilns at the manufacturing plant, for instance, will need charcoal to fire the clay filters – competing with Kenyan hearths for the rare commodity. The windmill and solar panels could reduce the need for home consumption of charcoal, Appel said. All of the alternative technology is crafted from items easily found in Kenya, he said. But keeping costs affordable for Kitale residents is still a challenge. Appel wants the windmill to cost no more than a month’s wages for a typical family.
That’s where the grain-drying and storage bin comes in. It’s intended to help subsistence farmers boost their incomes, so they can afford the new technology, McCormick said.
Most farmers let their harvested corn dry in the fields, where it can be stolen or eaten by foraging animals. The bins will protect the crop and give farmers the option of storing it to sell after harvest when prices are higher.
Appel and his students plan to travel to Kitale in mid-May. Zimmerman, meanwhile, applied for a $25,000 grant from Rotary International to start up the water filter manufacturing facility.
Nalelia will be the plant’s manager. Eventually, the plant will have dormitories so that people from other regions of Kenya can come to learn how to make the water filters and see other alternative technologies in use.
Blueprints will be available so they can take the ideas back to their own communities, Appel said.