Lights, water, freedom
i have long believed that economic freedom is a precursor to personal freedom. People with money want to be free to enjoy their lives - ergo personal freedom and dare we say it - democracy? Dean Kamen has invented 2 new machines - One's an efficient stirling engine that generates a kilowatt of energy per day no matter what you burn in it. The other is a water purifier which takes any kind of water - including raw sewage, vapourises the water and thus generates clean water - your basic water still. He's licencing this to Emergence energy, a company based in Cambridge Massachusetts owned by Iqbal Qadir, the founder of Grameen Bank and Grameen Phone and their business model is pretty unique. Villagers will get microloans to purchase the units, and sell the energy and clean water to the other villagers. This in turn creates entrepreneurs (2 or 3) per unit and employment in the form of facility management services in the village. They expect to produce the units for $1000 - $2000 in Bangladesh. CNN Money has an extensive article on this. I urge you to read it..! India has a huge energy problem, especially in villages, where state governments give away the power for free or at a hugely subsidised rate. This creates energy waste and shortages in other areas leading to daily loadshedding. Imagine the economic impact something like this will have! Use this to provide energy to villages, and leave the state electricity boards to provide electricity to cities. Now how do I contribute to this?
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