Motorcycle taxi operators waiting for passengers in this village in western Kenya’s Kisumu County lounge on their various machines – but Alfred Omondi’s plug-in electric scooter stands out from the crowd.
Surrounded by motorbikes running on polluting fossilfuels, Omondi sits astride his solar-powered rechargeable motorcycle, which uses technology developed by students from the University of Nairobi.
Charles Ogingo, Robert Achoge and James Ogola – all final year students – have built a system they call Ecotran, which captures the sun’s energy, stores it in batteries, and uses it to charge a motorcycle’s electric motor.
Much of western Kenya has no grid electricity, and the places that do face frequent power disruptions, so solar energy is a promising alternative, they say.
The three students have set up a “fuelling” station with 40 solar photovoltaic units, each generating 250 watts of electricity. The energy is stored in batteries before being transformed by powerful inverters into the alternating current needed by the motorcycle.
The motorbike uses a small portable battery which, fully charged, can run for 70km, after which it must return to the station to be recharged while another charged battery is fitted to the bike.
The students, who have set up a company called Pfoofy Solar, put together their system in 2014 at a climate change innovation centre at Strathmore Business School in Nairobi, where they had been sent to give practical form to their ideas.
After successfully trying out the Ecotran technology on three locally bought motorcycles in Kisumu County’s Nyakach area early this year, the young innovators are now expanding the project, and powering 40 more bikes.
“We were awarded $100 000 by the United States African Development Fund and Power Africa for the ingenious innovation. It is this money that we are now using to upscale the solar project,” said Pfoofy Solar manager Achoge.
Omondi, who used to ride a petrol motorcycle, said he used to make $9.60 on a good day, but would spend about $3.40 on fuel and another $3 to lease the bike from its owner.
Now it costs him 96 cents to recharge the electric motorbike, saving him money even as he helps the environment by curbing pollution and climate-changing emissions.
“The only challenge is that this electric bike has low acceleration and cannot work in hilly terrain,” he pointed out.
Ogingo, a mechanical engineering student, agreed that the technology promises lower operating costs as well as environmental benefits.
Taxi motorbikes are a big industry in Kenya, employing thousands of young people.
- gbcghana.com
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