[Peripherals] Power generation

[Edward Cherlin]

I'm looking for a design for a low-cost alternator that can be made in
a village with a minimum of tools and outside parts, as part of a
possible child-powered XO charging system built into playground
equipment that can otherwise be built entirely from local materials.
Does anybody here know anything about alternator design and
construction, or know engineers who would be willing to discuss it? I
see that cheap but powerful NIB  permanent magnets might be suitable
for the purpose, but there is much more involved.

See Playpump International for an example of playground equipment for
pumping water, and Fluxxlab for a design generating electricity from
revolving doors. Putting the Fluxxlab generator in the Playpump
merry-go-round gives us a prototype concept, but the Fluxxlab design
is not suitable for villages.

In the US, used automobile alternators run about $15, but in
developing countries they cost much more, because functioning cars are
almost never junked, and so there is a greater demand for old parts
relative to supply.

If we can work out how to build low-cost electricity systems, I can
get them into a microfinance program for the villages, where they will
pay for themselves by boosting the village economy. Any electricity
produced beyond what the children need can be sold in the community,
to power mobile phones, as in the Grameen Bank/Grameen Phone model, or
other communications and small-scale production equipment.

-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay