Makerere students win global prizes for clean energy innovations
Jul 01, 2020
Two groups of students from Makerere University have beaten teams from around the world to win gold and silver prizes in a global competition to find clean energy innovations.
By Taddeo Bwambale
Two groups of students from Makerere University have beaten teams from around the world to win gold and silver prizes in a global competition to find clean energy innovations.
The students won top prizes in the Efficiency for Access Design Challenge, a global competition that empowers teams
of university students to help accelerate clean energy access.
University students were invited to design affordable and energy-efficient appliances and technologies targeting low to
middle-income countries.
Derrick Sibo, Innocent Weredwong, Peter Mukasa and Silvio Obeti won gold for their innovation, a prototype for a
stand-alone solar load management system.
Their system is envisaged to help health centres in Uganda that experience frequent outages by managing solar energy
efficiently so that critical services can continue running.
The prototype uses locally available components, making the design inexpensive to produce and capable of
harnessing solar energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The silver prize went to Evarest Ampaire, Ivan Musingo, Fred Wanjala and Reagan Masembe, who designed a solar energy-efficient fish dryer.
The solar-powered dryer dries fish efficiently, relying on heat radiation and solar DC electricity, with the potential to save fish farmers' time, energy and wastage.
The system is expected to boost fish processing, which remains largely underdeveloped and dependent on crude means, according to the pitch by the student innovators.
Electricity in off-grid areas, such as landing sites remains quite expensive and inaccessible for many fish processors
who are unable to use refrigerators or electric fish dryers.
The dryer eliminates the need to use firewood to smoke and preserve fish. It can also help fishermen eliminate the loss of fish and requires minimum supervision to run.
The Efficiency for Access Design Challenge is supported by Engineers Without Borders UK, UKaid and the IKEA
Foundation. The challenge began in September 2019, with students submitting their projects in April 2020 and presenting their projects to a panel of expert judges on June 17 and 19.
Participating universities were Durham University, Independent University of Bangladesh, Loughborough University, Makerere University, Strathmore University, Swansea University, University College of London, University of Bath and the University of Strathclyde.
The winning teams showcased their submissions to over 150 leading academics, students and companies in the offgrid
sector at the grand finale on Thursday.
The UK international environment minister, Lord Zac Goldsmith, said: "Climate change is one of the biggest global threats we face, so it is fantastic to see students from Uganda helping us to achieve a greener future by finding innovative
solutions to improve access to clean energy. This not only protects the environment, but also people's health."
Jeffrey Prins, the head of renewable energy at IKEA Foundation, said delivering renewable energy access for all
by 2030 requires innovative ideas from creative people.
Emma Crichton, the head of engineering at Engineers Without Borders UK, said the institution was inspired by the students' creativity, passion and approach to the challenge.