How To Obtain Power In the Desert

Mustafa Al Saeed

I would like to share with my mates something I know and did at my farm in Saudi Arabia and I think they will enjoy knowing how to do it. It is making a small generator that runs on wind and solar energy.

My farm is faraway from an area that has electricity yet we need energy so we can stay up at night and if we want to use anything that needs power to work. We could obtain power from a generator. However a generator is expensive, and needs petrol. Furthermore every time we bought a generator it would not work after seven months or less than a year because the weather in my country exhausts the machines. Thereby I was thinking about any idea that could help me, even I lost money. Then I was invited to have dinner in the desert with my old friends, and I found that they use solar cells and a dynamo to generate electricity.

It was very cheap. It did not cost more than 250 NZ dollars. I just bought a big battery, which is used in trucks, however it was second hand, and a dynamo that generates power for a car. I have one that I bought from a second hand car place. I also found a long pole, and a fan with wires that does not work.

I took the blades from the fan and fixed those blades to the dynamo, and then I connected the wires between the dynamo, the solar cell and the battery. I sited the dynamo on the pole and then I left the pole and steadied it on the land. Then I connected every light, my television and receiver to the battery, and finally I put the solar cell outside on the rooftop. It is enough to work for 6 hours at night. But it depends on the weather. It is a very good idea for a small trip or a house faraway from town.