News

MEng students design portable wind turbine for refugee camps

28 April 2016

The portable wind turbine, seen here outside the Queens' buliding, stands tall at 4m
The portable wind turbine, seen here outside the Queens' buliding, stands tall at 4m
Image of a refugee camp courtesy of the Guardian (17/11/2015)
Image of a refugee camp courtesy of the Guardian (17/11/2015)
As the refugee crisis displaces increasing numbers of families, more refugee camps need to be set up to accommodate them. Conventional energy generation using diesel generators is expensive (£2.3m a year for Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya) due to the associated operational costs to provide fuel.

An MEng project, undertaken by David Stacey, Mohamed Mustafa Osman Mohamed; Kenny Vo; Awais Ijaz and Pryag Chamund, was code named Wind Power Aid and aimed to address these issues. The project set out to design a portable wind turbine that would alleviate demand for diesel to provide cleaner, cheaper energy. Portability of the wind turbine will help to deploy energy generation in emergency-response situations, where people are forcibly displaced from their homes due to natural disasters.

The project required skills in brainstorming, communication and teamwork to realise the project. Prototyping the design with selected materials helped to optimise the final design of the wind turbine.

You can see the results of the student's hard work working on Youtube youtu.be/Tiu6QDhRMY0
Website:http://www.facebook.com/windpoweraid

Updated by: Corinne Hanlon