Tuesday, November 11, 2008

For Africa, ‘Energy From Dirt’


Ellie Bittourna: Almost 75% of the people in Africa live without electricity. Many companies are using Africa as a testing place for new sources of energy so that we can stop the continuation of wasting natural resources and fossil fuels. Some examples of natural energy is using solar energy or wind energy. A group in Massachusetts is testing out a fuel that would come from the bacteria in soil and waste. The bacteria found in garbage and manure is actually meant to produce energy. It breaks down the waste and produces the energy to make the batteries. Since a lot of Africa is made up of dirt, it is easy for them to make fuel from it. Lebone Solutions recieved $200,000 dollars from the World Bank to continue working on these types of experiments with new types of energy. Lebone Solutions is hoping that by the end of making the fuel from dirt, each household will be able to get a battery-operated source of electricity built into their house at a rate of $15 dollars. Hopefully, in the near future these people will be able to have homes with electricity running through them. As for now, many of their focuses lie mainly on basic necessities like food or cellphones.

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