By Solar Times Bureau
Eden’s innovation is a hope of affordable and sustainable electricity for about 1.5 billion people
SunSaluter a new invention as a solution for energy crises, invented by Eden Full a young and successful 20 years old rising entrepreneur from San Francisco, U.S., had designed the device when she was studying at Princeton University; the SunSaluter is a rotator that allows solar panels to track the sun’s movements without using electricity.
When asked Eden, how the devise operate, she said, “the devise senses changes in temperature using biometallic strips. Biometallic strips are found in your thermostat and are really sensitive to subtle temperature changes. I can connect these strips to the axel of the solar panel and they will rotate and control its location at any point in time. This system mimics the accuracy you would get from a motor without a motor’s complexities.”
Further she adds, “I find my invention as a sunflower that follows the sun from east to west throughout the day.” The SunSaluter is very beneficial and it is very cheap and as well as easy to use. The devices are made up of locally sourced and recycle material rather than costly electronic components. It is very flexible to use, one can install it beneath any solar panel with few minor adjustments.
The first SunSaluter prototype designed by Eden was costing about $10 or $20 for one panel. She had sent those prototypes in villages in Kenya with a population of 500, who were deprived of electricity. Eden’s innovation is a hope of affordable and sustainable electricity for about 1.5 billion people who are deprived of it.
Though the device is easy and flexible to use, Eden says there were many challenges in using her innovation in Kenya, she said’ “I realized that they didn’t really have a need for AC power. Everything they needed to charge had batteries, so they really only needed DC power. They also felt they needed to mount the system higher up than I had anticipated because there are a lot of children in the village who might be able to play with or damage the system if it was too low. So when I got on the ground I had to make adjustments to the design. This experience really helped me understand that a technology has to be appropriate.”
For further improvisation and innovation in her device the young entrepreneur moved to Oakland, were she introduced a dripping water filtration system. This system makes the weight slowly moves the panel, allowing villagers both more solar power as well as clean water.
Eden says that she would “like to spread the idea of the SunSaluter to as many people as possible. And I would like to spread the idea that appropriate technologies are important. I dream that as many people in as many different markets in as many different places as possible would use my technology. And I want to help improve the potential of solar and to work toward the goal of having it meet 25 percent of the world’s energy needs by 2050.”