Sierra Leone is a beautiful place with luscious trees and all types of geographical formations. Nestled within the Western Coast of Africa it is a pinnacle of natural beauty, but sadly ridden with landfills, hospitals still in shock from a nerve wracking Ebola outbreak, and a devastating lack of electricity. Sierra Leone is abundant with gems and jewels although the living conditions are not glamorous. The farms, marshlands, and mountainous lands found here are a marvel but the average life expectancy of citizens is much lower than their highest mountain, at 51 years. This makes Sierra Leone the perfect place to give our targeted help to.

DEFINE

During our brainstorm we thought of possible ways to fix electrical problems on a global scale. Putting all of our wacky, crazy, and zany ideas into words that could solve problems galore. Soon we made a list of our favorite ideas and voted on them. The vote was close but we decided on Electricity Accessibly in Non Accessible places. Needing to narrow our topic down we discovered the countries and cities in the world that live without electricity for various reasons. Sierra Leone was the perfect fit with over 94% of civilians living without electricity. Since Sierra Leone struggles in many ways we want to create a solution, a machine based off of a sustainable source that is perfect for this country

We are aiming to design a system that can transport electricity and make it accessible to more of the population of this unique, majestic country by a sustainable source and with a tailor fit contraption. 

DISCOVER

Many financial aid and technological organizations are working in Sierra Leone such as World Bank. Sierra Leone also has an increasing problem of deaths while giving birth. Most of which are caused by loss of blood because blood banks need electricity to store larger amounts of blood. Another organization, Peace Corps works in Sierra Leone to educate teachers and students at local schools about different health and sustainability practices. I believe that another dream of ours would be implementing some form of electricity use and creation into the curriculum for the citizens to have a better understanding and experience with the topic for the future. There are many projects around the living conditions in Sierra Leone although few about focusing on an electric generation source using the available sources in Sierra Leone to solve the problem aside from the organizations working currently on smaller scale changes. The ministry responsible for electricity in Sierra Leone is also investigating sustainable ways of energy production and consumption as said in the outline of Sierra Leone electricity and energy wise. Micro Hydro Dams and hydro dams are spotted on few rivers in Sierra Leone despite the country ridden with countless tributaries. To spread awareness of the problem in Sierra Leone we could even possibly start a website to collect donations!  (See attached pdf. below)

Here are the SOURCES we used throughout Discover but also the entire process and project-

DREAM

Our vision is that we want to design a sustainable electrical source for most, if not all, buildings, houses, and appliances in Sierra Leone. Resource wise, natural gas is not an option as well as financially their are many limitations that have to be considered in our plan and the pollution, geographical formations, and population are also key factors. Some ideas we have for sustainable sources include solar, tide, hydro, and physical. We are designing different models and possible electricity generation devices that run off of these sources. For Sierra Leone espescially, we want to tailor fit the solution so that it can be run long term and change lives in that particular country.

Another dream of ours for later on and if we take this further is to possibly contact some officials in the electric sector in Sierra Leone and actually personally ask them for advice!

Want a summary of Sierra Leone’s situation? Here is a video describing life in Sierra Leone near election day.

DELIVER

Our idea was that We were aiming to design a system that can transport electricity and make it accessible to more of the population of this unique, majestic country by a sustainable source and with a tailor fit contraption. 

Wind Turbine

The first model that I believe that would be fitting for Sierra Leone is a wind turbine. We can position a few of these atop the highest mountain where wind power will be the fiercest. The wind turbine can be made out of recyclable materials that the citizens can even build themselves apart from the motor.

Waterwheel

The second model that we believe will work with Sierra Leones swift waters is a classical waterwheel. It can also be made from recyclable materials and though Sierra Leone’s waters are polluted to an undrinkable extent they can still be used as a remarkable source of energy!

Solar Panels

The third idea was to implement solar panels on houses and buildings in Sierra Leone, although this solution is slightly less effective due to the hefty cost associated with solar panels. Although the root of solar panels, harnessing the sun’s energy, is a great base for another possible solution.

Elemental Leone

Our final backup idea was to create a hybrid green electricity provider completely fitted to Sierra Leone, during the discovery phase we researched the geographic formations, water bodies, and wind speed as well as other possible sources for green electricity. Here are a few points that have led us to the Elemental Leone because it is a powerful machine so Leone for lion, and elemental because it combines many elements of Sierra Leones environment.

How does it work?

Using Sierra Leone’s wind speed atop the highest point land and water join at the wind turbine will spin. As the current in Sierra Leone’s waters is constantly strong and powerful the waterwheel will be the main source of support and the wind turbine helping out. For a safety mechanism added solar panels are put onto the body of the wind turbine in case of any problems with the other two machines.

How will it solve the problem?

Sierra Leone currently is under a massive energy crisis with many people effected negatively by a lack of electric including blood banks with no refrigeration. The Elemental Leone is built mainly from recyclable materials making it even buildable by citizens through proper training. It will solve the problem by producing a sustainable, reliable, and effective source of electric.

Things to consider

Some items planned on the Elemental Leone are costly and Sierra Leone is not in a financial state to purchase them. We can solve this by trying to further find more cost efficient parts. Also, many citizens may not be welcoming to the new technology as they might feel as though it interferes in their traditional style of living.

Sierra’s Personal Green Machine

Our last idea and top idea is a combination of all the previous ideas to create something extremely unique to Sierra Leone. The location of this energy provider must be precise as it should have heavy water pressure preferably between two masses of land which expel the water through a narrow opening, perfect for generating electricity. Another bonus of a location similar to this would be the water will be at a constant pressure throughout the year. We can use the material substitution as we did in the other machines such as the use of pre-owned tires and rewelded steel to be a solution to a growing garbage problem in Sierra Leone. Sierra’s Personal Green Machine is tailored to Sierra Leone and perfectly fits our outcome we outlined in define. Being cheaper, sustainable, and energy forward this machine is perfect for Sierra Leone.

How does it work?

A key component in the Green Machine is to extract the maximum amount of energy from the water, and what is stronger that the majestic rapids, waves, and tide. Obviously without causing any injury to the environment we will harness the power of the tide using a topping device modified with some recycled, repurposed materials. As said previously, the machine is nestled between two land forms that will expel the water through and create pressure for power. The topping device will be powered by the waves. To the sides of the topper will be the water wheels pressed tightly and held by the land. Behind the waterwheels will be generators that convert the power transmitted via the electricity wires and then the electricity is transferred to the main electric box in the center. In larger locations more toppers may be used as well as doubling water wheels.

See more about tide and wave movement and harnessing it for electricity at-https://www.boem.gov/Ocean-Wave-Energy/

How will it solve the problem?

The Green Machine will clearly solve the problem or the Sierra Leone energy crisis through the sustainable sources of electricity and the low cost but it will also solve many other problems that may not be so clear at first.

The Green Machine can solve a huge garbage problem in Sierra Leone. Landfills fill up and after comes perfectly sanitary rivers and water supply that turns to sewage due to garbage that could have been classified reusable. The Green Machine not only produces green power but is made green too. With repurposed tires, rewelded metal, and wood cut only after planting another tree, it is the solution to pollution in Sierra Leone’s cities.

This can also solve a problem of jobs and pay because through proper training their can be citizens that can actually make, or do a certain job in the process of, creating a Green Machine for their community.

Things to consider

Things to consider about the Green Machine is about the exact location which may be hard to fit the requirments but hopefully will since we tailored it well to what geographic image we know about Sierra Leone. Another thing to consider would be again, the cost of motors and generators, if we divulge further into the mechanics we may be able to find a solution but for now the motors still lie as a large financial dent. We also understand that this machine may not be able to generate enough electricity to power all of Sierra Leone and that is ok, for now our aim was to create an idea that will help Sierra Leone in their situation even in the slightest. This said, in the future if we do progress this idea we hope to make its impact larger.

DEBRIEF

Overall, I believe our project was definitely a success. We went through the different steps with each of them adding to our solution. In the defining process we defined what we needed to solve clearly and concisely which led us to discovering the opinions, views, and contributions of others related to Sierra Leone and sustainable electricity production we did have a lot of ideas so narrowing down them was indeed a challenge with all of our interests and opinions there were some conflicts but we looked over and followed through. After discovering the information we lead our dreams onto paper and dreamt of all the possible solutions we could tackle. We dreamt and soon delivered with diagrams and description coming to a conclusion about exactly what we can do. After all of this we are debriefing now about what went awesome and what needed to improve.

Here is a video of us debriefing over the process of our project.

http://sd43bcca-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/132-asiddiqui_sd43_bc_ca/EUS9_CRV1AlFoJfYtzRMzD8B2MdhSLnMJ4ORx_iEttX-rw?e=SCPla1

For next time…

Some things that we could definitely improve on would be making time to work on the project as a group for longer and collaborating more with the delivering aspect. Another thing would be to work toward some important technical aspects in looking at the motors and mechanical perspective of the sustainable machines. I think that for next time we may want to do a excellent version with a mix of all our best ideas and views on one draft and then refine that, later posting it to each of our Edublog’s. Because I believe that working on different copies and going at different speeds, different sections mad e us work separate and not collaborate as much as we would feel we needed to if we were on one document.