A 30-Year-Old innovator based in Eldoret is earning plaudits from Kenyans for his latest invention- an eco-friendly solar-powered car.
Samuel Karumbo is putting together the final touches to the innovation at a small garage tucked in the heart of Langas Estate in the outskirts of Eldoret Town.
According to Karumbo, his innovation was necessitated by his need to own a car.
“I admired owning a car and since I did not have enough money to buy one, I just sat down and remembered that I am an innovator. That is when I thought of coming up with a unique car, a solar-powered car that does not require any fuel,” said Karumbo.
Karumbo, who holds a diploma in Electrical Installation from Kitale Technical Polytechnic, said the car can cover about 50 km in a day.
“The solar car is taking advantage of the panels that collect the rays from the sun then convert them into electronic energy then the electronic energy will be stored in the batteries then you can use the energy from the battery to drive the wheel,” he explained.
“The car which weighs approximately 120 kilograms has three solar panels to propel it. The solar panels have a total of 260 watts which is a lot of energy,” he added.
The innovator said he wants to use the car to create awareness and reach out to people to adopt clean energy to protect the environment.
“One of the mitigating interventions that the country should put in place is to promote investments that work towards attaining the goal of using 100% renewable energy from sources such as solar, geothermal, tidal waves, the wind and even municipal waste as opposed to using fossil fuel generated power,” said Karumbo.
“My dream is that one day the government will support me put up a big workshop so that I can be able to manufacture more solar cars and sell them to Kenyans so that we can get rid of fuel emissions on our roads that has great effect to our environment.”
He said he has so far spent about Sh125, 000 to assemble the vehicle and although he has received interest from some buyers he says, that is still further down the road.
