www.williamkamkwamba.typepad.com

Check this out; it's a link to a young Malawians blog about his homemade windmill (turbine). He took the motor from a treadmill and attached homemade blades to make a wind turbine that can power a house.

I'd like to see how a mechanical windmill that pumps water to a tank would work in Malawi. The water table in the Hewe valley is shallow and there's a lot of water in the ground, but the farmers have no means to pump it up when they need it in the dry season. I asked a few of the farmers in Zolokere about the idea before I left and they were really interested, a few had never even heard of a windmill.

If I was smart, I'd be building a version of Craig's List for Malawi, designed for access via 3g mobile phones. It's coming.