GREEN EDITION

4INNOVATION

ALONG HAYDN STREET, HIDDEN BEHIND A CONCRETE CANOPY OF STEEL DOORS AND TALL WALLS LIES THE NAMIBIA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY’S INNOVATION DESIGN LAB (IDL). IN IT, IN A GARAGE, PARKED DI-AGONALLY IS THE NSEUV1 PRO-TOTYPE, BETTER KNOWN AS THE NAMIBIAN SOLAR ELECTRIC UTIL-ITY VEHICLE OR NAMIBIA’S FIRST SOLAR POWERED TAXI.

The first things you notice about the car are its angular edges. Layered around those edges is an illuminat-

ing coat of lime-green paint. Four wheels, lithium-ion batteries and a solar panelled

roof make up the rest of what the direc-tor of the IDL, Italian born professor Pio Barone Lumaga calls jokingly a “Solar Frankenstein.”

Assembled using spare parts from other vehicles, the car is nothing short of a work of art. Lumaga’s vision is to create solutions for Namibia’s biggest problems ranging from the high unem-ployment rate, the impending doom of climate change and the uneven slopes of gender equality.

Although some may see the solar taxi as scrap metal welded together under the thinning umbrella of ambition, the bright minds at IDL have something a lot of sceptics do not. Belief.

THE TEAMThe IDL office is a labyrinth. Corridors

lead to rooms that lead to white boards filled with scientific formulas, illustrations and ripped paper between textbooks piled on other textbooks. The office reads more like a think tank for developing new ideas, and spearheading Lumaga’s vision is project manager Rene Mukasa.

Hailing from the Zambezi region, Mukasa found her passion early on, “I was interested in physics when I was in high school. I liked learning about electricity and I was always very curious so I knew I wanted to study engineering,” Mukasa says. With a lot of support from her family, Mukasa majored in power engineering at

MEET THE WOMEN BEHIND Namibia’s First Solar

Powered Taxi

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5INNOVATION

NUST and graduated in 2014. She later re-turned to NUST to further her studies and applied to IDL when she saw an opening.

“I was in the industry for about two years and I experienced many challenges,” she says, adding that “The old belief that engineering is only for men still exists. I found that when people hear ‘electrical engineer’ they automatically assume it’s a man. When they do eventually find out that I am woman, they don’t trust me with much of the work and they question if I can do the job.”

According to Mukasa though, there is hope as the progression of feminist ideals has seen a surge of more female engineers. “When I was still studying, there

were about seven girls in a class of about eighteen students. It might not seem like a lot but it’s definitely an improvement from the days there were none,” she concludes.

The NSEUV1 was designed, built and tested by a team of twenty students, seven of whom were female. Twenty-four-year-old Sarah Kahohoi from the small village of Onelombo was one of them.

Currently in her final year at NUST, Kahohoi is a mechanical engineering student that heard about the solar taxi project in 2015 from some of her fellow students. Joining IDL was initially part of her internship but Kahohoi soon found a massive interest in developing creative and innovative ways to practise and promote sustainable development through the use of renewable energy.

“I wanted to be part of something that

had to do with preserving the environment. I always wanted to do something differ-ent and I like challenges,” Kahohoi says, describing her choice to study mechanical engineering as a ‘platform’ to do what she had always been passionate about, “It wasn’t just about getting an engineering degree, I wanted to inspire girls back at home,” Kahohoi adds.

Much like her project manager, being a woman in the engineering field has come with its fair share of gender-based assumptions and generalisations. “Men tend to undermine you. There’s also a lot of pressure to perform because you are in a place where you are sort of looked down on because you are a woman. You

have to work twice as hard. But it does not happen here at IDL.” Kahohoi explains.

HOW DOES THE SOLAR TAXI WORK?

Professor Lumaga, Mukasa and Kahohoi went into great detail, explaining the intrinsic make-up of the solar taxi and why the IDL began working on the project.

Long before mil-lennials walked the earth, Lumaga became one of the world’s first environmental engi-neers. Having designed

cars for leading European manufacturers, Lumaga always had a strong interest in creating new ways to develop sustainable innovations needed to answer the needs of a growing population.

“My job is to inspire my students to learn. Namibia needed a centre where research could be implemented. We still need more women in the science, technol-ogy and entrepreneurship fields. That’s why at IDL we try and privilege the access of women to foster innovation in science, technology and mathematics,” Lumaga says.

“We import 63% of our energy here in Namibia. We could invest that money in the development of solar farms and wind farms,” Lumaga says, adding that “In Namibia, we have 300 solar sun days, this is one of the highest in the world but we

don’t invest in the fact that the sun is free.”In an effort to inspire more use of solar

based innovations in Namibia and Africa, Lumaga and his team plan to build three NSEUV prototypes that work on solar en-ergy captured by photo-voltaic cells stored in lithium-ion batteries. The prototypes (including the first model) operate with a zero-carbon footprint eliminating the use of costly gasoline, the emission of poisonous gasses that induce climate change all the while improving the health of the citizens.

THE FUTURELooking at the sketches and illustra-

tions of the next NSEUV prototype, things are promising. Although behind schedule, the next prototype will not only be made in Namibia, but will have car intelligence, reach a maximum speed of 50km/h and will be a 4KW solar electric car that will target a cost of about N$50 000.

IDL aims to inspire, encourage practical research that not only looks for solutions but also encourages mistakes because, as Lumaga puts it, “A lot can be learned from mistakes.”

What is holding the IDL back is the lack of funding. The team is looking to reach out to not only government but private investors in order to develop and complete a series if three solar taxis.

For all the people involved in this project, helping Namibians realise the importance of environmental preservation is a huge priority as most of them believe that Namibians need to be exposed to the benefits of taking care of their sur-roundings. Not only is it cheaper, everyone (with the right access to information and know-how) can help curb the uncertainties of climate change.

“Namibia could be a supplier of clean energy to neighbouring countries,” Lum-aga says with both Musaka and Kahohoi expressing that Namibia is straddling the fence between completely being dev-astated by climate change or turning it around and taking advantage of its natural resources.

Behind this amazing innovation is a team of individuals that care greatly for the environment, “My proudest moment was when the first NSEUV finally moved,” Mukasa expresses with Kahohoi add-ing, “Regardless of your gender or where you are from, it is possible to work hard towards something bigger than yourself and make a difference.”