An inspiring solution to help farmers grow more food;
engineered at University of Toronto - built in Nicaragua
GREAT NEWS! The first windmill from Winds of Change is in place. There were some moments of excitement, but it's up! Congratulations John Shoust, Amy Bilton, Wayne Scott, Julian Guevara, our friends in Pedro Arauz and the great team of engineers from the University of Toronto.
In mid January the team from University of Toronto has worked along side the people of Pedro Arauz to turn basic materials from the local hardware supply store into an innovative way to automate the existing rope pumps to aid in irrigation of the community garden. When the water began to flow from the pipe there was a collective cheer and sigh of relief. Because the wind was quite strong we were also able to witness the newly designed automatic break kick in to disengage the rotor when the wind hit the threshold.
This is a great example of constraint based innovation ... the hard part is coming up with a design that can be built with standard materials using only basic hand tools. We envision that future windmills will be built by the people of Pedro Arauz to aid in irrigating their small farms and to generate much needed income by building more windmills for other communities.
There is still work to do to prove that the design can sustain its performance over time, but today we can enjoy success at this important milestone! We have lots of planning to do, a documentary film to edit, and fundraising to continue.
