1 Designs for Extreme Affordability Presented by Robin Podmore Brian Waldron Incremental Systems IEEE Power and Energy Society 2010 Annual Meeting Minneapolis, MA

2 Definition of Customer 80% of customers earning less than $1-2 per day are rural farmers with access to plots of 1 acre or less to sustain a family 20% of customers are urban dwellers many of whom have left farms that cannot sustain them and/or their families to seek work in cities and local industry “Out of Poverty” Paul Polak

3 Definition of Customer -Rural A $1/day 1 acre customer does not own a bicycle or animal (cow, goat, sheep, horse) A $2/day customer may own more than 1 acre and an animal or two but still cannot make enough on the farm to survive all year; typically seeks outside work to avoid several months of insufficient food RE Community Solutions Working Group R. Larsen

4 Definition of Customer Our customers are talented, hard-working, honest, loving and devoted people. We can learn from them on all aspects of design, development, implementation and application. They just need the tools and training to empower them to use their talents. RE Community Solutions Working Group R. Larsen

5 Problems with Kerosene - Costly Kerosene is expensive Nepal, women trek for day and wait in line for days to buy Kerosene Uganda – rural and urban families spend $10 per month for candles, lighting, kerosene, dry cell batteries, recharging car batteries. Even with government subsidies kerosene costs, 10 to 20% of villagers annual income

6 Problems with Kerosene - Safety Families cannot afford proper bottle and wick They use fragile glass bottle and rope for a wick – This is basically a Molotov Cocktail 1998 there were 270,000 deaths from fire related burns in developing countries. In India 2.5 million people suffer burns each year mainly from overturned kerosene lamps

7 Problems with Kerosene - Health 780 million women and children breathing particulate laden kerosene fumes inhale equivalent smoke from two packs of cigarettes a day. Two thirds of adult women lung cancer victims are non smokers Many homes have poor ventilation NOX and SOX cause lung and eye infections, respiratory problems and cancer. Light is only 2 to 4 lumens compared to 60 watt bulb with 900 lumens - Children can only read books if directly over the flame

8 Open Source Designs and Plans Components – source, cost, performance, test results all shared. Business plans – financial projections, market analyses, partners experience all shared.

9 Generation Options Photo Voltaic Solar Wind Turbines Human Powered Thermal Solar Concentrator using: –Scheffler Reflector –Stirling Engine –Molten Salt Storage

10 Design Goals People powered electric generator Provide electricity for Charging Cell Phones and Electric Lighting for rural families earning $1 per day. Energy to charge a cell phone: 10 watt hours Energy to replace a kerosene lamp (4 lumens) with a White LED lamp at 40 lumens: 2 watts for five hours: 10 watt hours Provide sustained output of 60 watts

11 Power2Light Cycle

12 Summary One person can charge battery at 14.6 volts with 4.4 amps – 643 watts. As 80 Amp Hour battery drops below 90% charge level torque is too high to pedal. Solutions: –Add resistor in series –Use multiple cycles in parallel –Add a current limiter in series One hour of pedaling can provide 20 hours of light – light 5 homes for 4 hours Ten hours of pedaling in one day can provide light for 40 homes.

13 Summary Capital Costs: –Parts for Power2Light Cycle - $80 or $2 per home –LED lamps - $5 per home System is expandable Meets all of the Polak criteria

14 Re-Cycle – Bicycle Aid for Africa

15 Re-Cycle Village Bicycle Project Potential Partner for Human Cycle Power Supplies used bikes Bicycle repair training Add on tools Delivered 43,000 bicycles Trained 6,400 maintenance staff

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17 Paul Polak’s Rules (Author: “Out of Poverty”) Aim for people who earn less than $1 per day Affordability isn’t the everything. It’s the only thing. Need a breakthrough in affordability Need a breakthrough in miniaturization Must be Infinitely expandable Results must be attainable in Three Years Support income generation Can scale to reach millions of poor people

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