The Windmill Project

The Windmill Project, where it all began. After a trip in 2014 to Pedro Arauz to perform a school expansion rehabilitation project and taking a tour of the local community, it became incredibly obvious the large wealth gap between various communities and community members. Most live well below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar a day, but a few had an interesting leg up on the majority of the community members.

That difference was crop growth… After the civil war, each community member was given a plot of land, some livestock and a few pieces of tin to build a “home.” Some had a well on their land from previous US-based companies that grew sugar cane on the land. Once these companies lost interest in the land, they were handed over to the community members to survive on.

The main issue they all faced was a complete lack of funding to purchase seeds and work the land for crops. Further, to this, one of the biggest variables was the ability to source groundwater in a high enough capacity to achieve regular watering of the fields that experienced 30+ degrees, and very dry conditions much of the year.  

Fast forward to my return to Toronto and eager to further develop the concept of the $200 Windmill. A goal of locally building, sourcing and erecting a water pumping windmill for less than 1/10th the cost of a commercial version. Now the need to make the project a reality.

I reached out to several universities to enlist the help of student engineers, and Amy Bilton of the University of Toronto answered the call. Amy heads up the Global Engineering and Sustainability department at the university and has many years of experience and fieldwork in a similar capacity. Amy volunteered to be a student advisor under the Capstone Project within the university, whereby students develop and get graded on a project offered by the real world.

The student team was formed, and we kicked off the Windmill Project. The team made their first trip to Nicaragua to immerse themselves in the environment, meet the community and face the reality of working in a community with little to no access to many of the tools, electricity and raw materials we would find in Canada.

Returning to Canada, eager to get started, the team formulated a concept and built a prototype within a few months.  Professor Bilton and I advised and guided the students on construction techniques, material substitutes and overall design guidance.

Once complete, we reviewed the materials and tool requirements and made our way back to the community in March.  We ran to all the hardware stores, gathered our materials, tools and organized the community to get started.

The build was exciting, frustrating, challenging, and amazing all at the same time.  Time pressures were real; accomplishing this task in such a short time took some amazing teamwork, and we succeeded. 

By the last day, literally down to hours to go, we lined up the pickup truck, and with one giant push, we stood the 10-meter windmill and anchored it to the ground.  We assembled the rope on the pulley’s and within minutes a gust of wind pushed the blades, spun the pulley and water began pouring out of the top of the windmill!

So many lessons learned, plan alterations, quick thinking and teamwork made this project one to remember.  You can see the full documentary on this site or via this link.