Jeremiah Thoronka, a 17 year old young man from Makawo in Sierra Leone, has launched his own startup, Optim Energy, to power homes via kinetic energy transfer.
He buries piezoelectric devices under roads, converting kinetic energy in the form of vibrations and movement into electric currents. Thoronka says “the sun is not always shining, water is drying up, fossils fuels are on the way out, but people are always moving”. Optim Energy have successfully deployed devices which power 150 nearby homes and 15 schools, totalling services to more than 10,000 people, 9,000 of whom are students.
In Sierra Leone only 26% of people have access to electricity. Students fall behind who do not have adequate access to lighting in their homes for studying after dark. The company is also looking to expand to the healthcare sector, utilising busy roads and walkways near hospitals to generate power.
It seems that Jeremiah’s work could well be the catalyst for a ground breaking transformation in energy provision in Sierra Leone and in other busy African communities whereby large swathes of the transit infrastructure can be harnessed for clean and sustainable electricity. In my opinion, this story embodies the principal that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Movement is a huge energy resource that is currently going to waste. It highlights the need for developing ways of increasing the efficiency of energy production and of making the most of natural resources.
I subscribe to the view that often the most elegant solutions are often the most simple. As Thoronka says, “ people accept solutions that are local. They will open their doors if they can relate to it”. This new enterprise can affect their relationship with the environment, their health, and their education.
The old saying “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime” seems particularly poignant here.
Given a fish (the ailing 1960’s national grid in Sierra Leone) Jeremiah’s home was given a vision of the future. Given a net (his education) he has seen the chance to sustainably provide energy and improve the lives of his community and the wider population
I’m D.B.G (Dan Barnaby Goddard), a writer and recording artist based on Dartmoor in the West of the U.K. My songs are musical poems reflecting things I have seen and felt throughout my life and I’m always on the lookout for stories which reaffirm my trust in humanity and the human spirit.
In this Buzz column I seek out instances to fill in the spaces left by an increasingly corporate world, commenting on the unpredictable and heart warming gems which are created as the wheels of power keep turning round.
