Powerplay

Recently, there was a storm here in Pittsburgh that caused several power outages across the city. My neighborhood was one of the areas affected. Since outages aren’t a thing here apparently, there was no system of back-up electricity in the house, and the one flashlight we had was hardly sufficient.

Now, I’m from Pakistan, a country notorious for electricity shortages and frequent black outs. Pakistan is also highly polarized when it comes to income groups and the utilities they have access to; electricity and back-up power included. According to the World Bank, more than a third of Pakistan’s population does not have access to electricity. Those 8 hours I spent in the dark that day is how 37.6% Pakistanis spend their lives. That’s worrying.  And that is why, for me, social innovation in energy is so important.

The innovations outlined in the article start small; a torch, a portable charger, maybe even a fan.  From where we stand, that may not sound like much (it didn’t to me before that black out either). But in their absence, one realizes what they’re worth. A torch, for example, can help you read, or catch up on school work, something the children in thousands of remote villages cannot. Instead their study hours are confined to the sunlight. A fan, for example, can help keep mosquitos away and prevent diseases (like dengue). This becomes all the more important in Pakistan’s rural areas where sleeping out in the open is commonplace. Thus establishing the need for these devices, however small they may be. Onwards to the solution…

The other thing quite common in these rural areas is the various physical activities the locals are engaged in the whole day, be it chopping wood, kneading dough, weaving carpets, or even playing sports (always cricket, without fail). So here you have a bunch of kinetic people that need electricity and then there’s SOCCKET, that uses a kinetically-powered pendulum to generate power, all the while that its being used in a round of football soccer. The prospects of translating a similar mechanism, or technology to other activities is exciting, maybe a wristband that generates power based on the movement it records. XYZ watts per axe-swing.

Currently these areas heavily rely on firewood as a fuel source, and for a lucky few villages (lucky by virtue of being chosen as pilot projects), solar power. The kinetically powered pendulum adds a much needed third option.