A step towards clean energy
You know the future is in good hands when children are raising their voices against issues and inventing things that are beneficial to society.
One of them many things invented by children that can prove to be helpful to society is HARVEST, a bio-inspired energy device that captures energy from sun, rain and wind, and converts it to power.
Maanasa, and the inspiration
Maanasa Mendu is a 16-year old high school student from Ohio, the U.S. She has been interested in science since the beginning of her schooling.
Participating actively in the science fair project in her school, her first project was testing Vitamin C content of different fruits. She was surprised when she discovered that strawberries had more vitamin C content than oranges.
During one of her vacations to her grandparents place in rural India. Maanasa encountered frequent power cuts. She realised that the power would be cut off every day at the same time in an attempt to distribute power to other places. This would leave people in the darkness.
Maanasa was affected by this and decided to use her knowledge in science to help out with such situations.
It’s HARVEST time!
Once she returned, Maanasa built a prototype renewable energy-gathering device called HARVEST. HARVEST mimics the shape of a tree (though much smaller) and uses piezoelectric materials to capture power from wind and rain. Piezoelectric materials capture mechanical energy and convert them into electrical energy.
Maanasa worked with piezoelectric materials for a long while. She even entered her Class VII and VIII science fairs with piezoelectric projects.
Maanasa’s HARVEST was inspired by the movement of leaves. So, she built a small structure with piezoelectric stems and Styrofoam leaves – which looks like a tree, and made an entry video for the 2016 Young Scientist Challenge when she was in Class VIII.
Mannasa’s entry was selected and she spent the next few months working on her prototype and learning about renewables, electrical engineering, prototyping and more.
After discussion with her mentor about the practical requirements of a renewable energy source, Mannasa integrated flexible solar cells into the device. This meant the device could now harvest energy from the sun as well.
HARVEST now had a plastic bottle as the main structure, with three wings that mimic the leaves on a tree, These wings were fitted with solar cells. And her entire device cost just US $ 5! She has even managed to charge a mobile phone and power a 15-watt LED bulb using the device.
Mannasa’s invention went on to win the 2016 Young Scientist Challenge and the title of American’s Top Young Scientist.
She is currently working to commercialize the device.
Picture Credit : Google