Reddit reviews The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (P.S.)

He wrote a book about his experience as well!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind/dp/0061730335

I went to this guy's TED talk, which you can find here.

He also wrote a biography on it.

Stories of people doing amazing or even just proactive things while in poverty are extremely inspiring and motivating for me. The book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a great example.

Here's a link to a book about William.

His book was required summer reading at some of our schools here.

There's a great book about this called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
I read it years ago but I remember one year that there was a drought the people thought that the windmill was creating "Black Magic" and attempted to destroy it to appease the witch doctors.

Also the witch doctors supposedly kidnap children to play Soccer with their heads.

I've read his book, it is one of my favorites. Truly inspiring, I'll read it again for sure, someday. There are several parts of the book that are really thrilling. Link to his book -> http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind/dp/0061730335

There's a book about it, I highly recommend it for the full story http://www.amazon.ca/The-Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind/dp/0061730335

This is a really good point. One of the reasons that you see famines in places like Africa and not the developed world is that they don't have the irrigation infrastructure to weather droughts. In many cases, it's not even a lack of available water; it's just the hardware to get the water to where it's needed. The electricity and economic activity generated by a project like this could do a lot to help people (assuming it were used responsibly and not sucked out of the area the way a lot of oil projects are).

There's an amazing (and true) biographical book called The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind about a young man who grew up in Mali. His family was middle-class for the area in that they owned some land, but it was basically a subsistence farming economy, and no one had any money to spare. Part of the book deals with a horrible drought-caused famine that strikes the country, killing many people in the area, including members of his family - it's heartbreaking to read.

Anyway, the gist of the book is that his parents aren't able to afford school anymore for him, but he he finds some old science books and through trial-and-error, teaches himself basic electrical principles and builds a windmill out of old tractor and bike parts from the junkyard. At first it's only enough to light some small lights, and people sort of make fun of him for his crazy science project, but eventually people from all over town are visiting him to charge their phones and radio batteries, and he winds up getting the attention of some folks overseas who get him a scholarship to go to an engineering school. He returns home and comes up with a cheap design for a windmill that can run a water pump to move groundwater to the fields. This allows people to harvest two crops a year instead of one, and prevents them from starving if the rain doesn't come. It completely revolutionizes the local economy. Super inspiring read. And now I've spoiled the ending :)

I highly recommend his book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, that explains in greater detail the circumstances that led to his inventions.

I received his book ("The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind") as a gift last year and read it. Its a very captivating read, and he talks in detail of having to stop going to school, beginning to go to library to learn, and the ridicule he faced in his village for building his windmill out of junk he was able to salvage. It goes on about how reporters discovered him and how ended up speaking at a TED conference. A really inspirational read.

Tell that to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind ... he used these initially. Actually a really, really good book. there's a Ted video too. (it's a dynamo light btw)

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind About a 14 year old boy in Africa who builds a windmill from an american textbook without knowing English. Many struggles to be overcome and is a fairly recent story. I learned a bout it when the boy apperared on The Daily show I think, so it has a fairly good ending.