15-year-old's turbine design to power Kenyan communities

A wind turbine invented by a 15-year-old is helping to provide power to communities in East Africa.

The turbine can be packed flat in a box and it was designed by Douglas Macartney for a competition in 2018.

Now it has been developed into a real working prototype (which means an early version of a product), by a team of student engineers at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).

The students worked over several years to create it, and they also added two solar panels to give it extra power.

Wind turbines can be as tall as 200 metres

You don't need any specialist training to put up the device which is intended to help areas in Kenya recovering from natural disasters and in rural areas far away and not connected to proper electricity.

Douglas Macartney, who is now 19 and designed the turbine, said: "It has been amazing to see how my idea on paper has been turned into a working prototype.

"It has been developed way beyond what I would have thought possible when I was coming up with the design."

Andrew Cowell, a senior teacher at GCU University, said: "The wind turbine was made to generate enough electricity to power a light and two USBs sockets in a disaster relief zone or a refugee camp.

"The technology would be able to improve energy access by making it affordable, reliable and low carbon."

He added that the turbine will be easier to transport into rural areas because it can be packed flat and put up easily which will help to reduce costs and energy prices.

The project is called 'Angaza Africa' and it will start on March 1 2023 and run for 12 months.