Human-powered electricity

       

Further reading

• Potenco - powering endless possibilities (145)
• Cheap human powered electricity (171)

A clever tool to provide electricity for anybody anywhere

Engineers tend to see things big. So much so that they sometimes forget that the biggest impact can often be achieved by seeing things small and simple. This tendency to opt for the big certainly doesn’t hold for Colin Bulthaup, founder of Potenco. The mission of his company is huge: making clean power universally available and immediately useful anywhere and everywhere in the world. His solution is surprisingly small: a pull-cord generator the size of a yoyo that can safely power rechargeable batteries and provide energy for applications such as lighting, cell phones, or water purifiers.

Innovation in the basement

The history of Potenco goes back to the year 2000, when a group of friends at MIT started the 'innovation factory' Squid Labs in the basement of Media Labs. Their aim was to apply technology and creativity for making the greatest impact possible on the world at large. Potenco is one of the five companies that spun off from this initiative.

One-laptop-per-child

A major opportunity to develop the company was the participation in the One-laptop-per-child Project. This project aims at building and distributing very cheap, simple to operate, and robust laptops that can be used by children all over the world. Potenco developed the underlying power technology for this laptop.

The possibility for change

But Potenco’s ambition goes further than that. 'There are over 2 billion people in the world with no electricity and no ability to communicate,' says Bulthaup. 'One third of the planet is not participating in global conversation. There is an incredibly strong need for significant change — and possibility for change. We are actually a half tech-company and half micro-finance/logistics company.'

Clean power universally available

Potenco’s Pull-Cord Generator (PCG) has a 40W peak power and 25W average power. One minute of pulling the PCG generates enough energy for 20 minutes of talk time on a mobile phone, one hour of LED flashlight use, or three hours playing time on an iPod Shuffle. The design of the unit is ergonomic and the resistance of the cord automatically adjusts to your fitness and energy level.

Wow! I never thought I could be my own reserve battery.