“For all the Pan-Africanism of the last four decades,” said Hugo Van Vuuren, “it is quite rare to have young students from South, East, and West Africa, in the same room without a soccer ball somehow involved.”x 1 Van Vuuren was talking about himself and three other Africans, who along with two Americans formed Lebônê Solutions, Inc.x 2 Lebônê (pronounced la-bo-nay, a Northern Sotho word for lamp) ventures to spread cheap, off-grid lighting throughout Africa with its product—a local electric system powered by a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that runs on dirt, manure or vegetable matter. The team met at a Harvard University engineering course called “Idea Translation”, where students were tasked to develop an idea, imagining light engineering as an art form. Van Vuuren described the MFC: A microbial fuel cell taps into the energy that soil microbes generate when they break down organic matter. Literally, this is energy from dirt: no special microbes or conditions are needed other than enough moisture for the bugs to do their work. Essentially all you do is dig a hole, layer an anode, some soil, sand and a cathode—and connect the anode and cathode to a circuit board to charge a battery that can power an LED (light emitting diode) light, run a radio or charge a mobile phone. In Africa, 74% of the population is off the electric grid. Lebônê's website describes the problem:x 3 ... Imagine a village at night in which students are walking to dista ...
Anytime
“For all the Pan-Africanism of the last four decades,” said Hugo Van Vuuren, “it is quite rare to have young students from South, East, and West Africa, in the same room without a soccer ball somehow involved.”x 1 Van Vuuren was talking about himself and three other Africans, who along with two Americans formed Lebônê Solutions, Inc.x 2 Lebônê (pronounced la-bo-nay, a Northern Sotho word for lamp) ventures to spread cheap, off-grid lighting throughout Africa with its product—a local electric system powered by a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that runs on dirt, manure or vegetable matter. The team met at a Harvard University engineering course called “Idea Translation”, where students were tasked to develop an idea, imagining light engineering as an art form. Van Vuuren described the MFC: A microbial fuel cell taps into the energy that soil microbes generate when they break down organic matter. Literally, this is energy from dirt: no special microbes or conditions are needed other than enough moisture for the bugs to do their work. Essentially all you do is dig a hole, layer an anode, some soil, sand and a cathode—and connect the anode and cathode to a circuit board to charge a battery that can power an LED (light emitting diode) light, run a radio or charge a mobile phone. In Africa, 74% of the population is off the electric grid. Lebônê's website describes the problem:x 3 ... Imagine a village at night in which students are walking to dista ...