Description
| - William Kamkwamba (born August 5, 1987) is a Malawian secondary school student, inventor, and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills (the tallest standing at 39 feet) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe.
After leaving school due to his family not being able to afford the tuition (~80USD), he took up self-education by going to his village's library. There, he found the book Using Energy and in it discovered a picture and explanation of windmills.
His story is told in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, written with journalist Bryan Mealer and published in 2009. Kamkwamba took part in the first event celebrating his...
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