Appropriate, or intermediate, technology is a broad based term referring to technologies that can be produced and maintained by small communities. Most often it refers to technologies that attempt to keep in balance local natural resources while serving basic infrastructure needs such as water, electricity, cook fuel, heat, sanitation, and housing. Most appropriate technology discussions revolve around the understanding that much of the benefit of quality infrastructure can be gained without harming the environment, without using complex hard to manufacture systems, and without requiring the prohibitive level of financing needed for large infrastructure projects. With the proper tools and knowledge communities of limited means, often in very simple and elegant ways, can solve on their own problems which the industrialized world has relegated to expensive specialists.

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Pico Hydroelectric Generator in 5 gallon bucket developed by Sam Redfield and tested at La Florida in Guatemala. The generator is meant to be a very small, cheap, low impact generator designed to be used with existing gravity fed irrigation, fresh water, or waste water systems.



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Normally you would need 3000 rpm to generate electricity from this generator ... but once altered it will produce at a very, very low rpm

ciao
db

Id like to use this in class next year! Wonder how he modified it.

WAVE ENERGY CONVERTED INTO ELECTRICITY - NY Times

two types of generators:

one that funnels the wave into an on-shore column that runs a piston,
another that places a column on the seabed using an attached floater to generate motion