By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
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The catchy title “Cows to Kilowatts” certainly won the attention of the crowds at the 2009 Tech Awards Gala in Silicon Valley, but the project won accolades for more than mere words. Dr. Joseph Adelegan, an Ashoka Fellow is a charismatic engineer who has found an effective way to harness the energy from slaughterhouse waste and won the $50,000 Intel Environment Award . He and his team at the Nigeria based Global Network for Environment and Economic Development Research, are creating cooking gas and electricity from effluent that might otherwise lead to harmful pollution.
What does the Tech Award mean to Dr. Adelegan?
“We’ve received several awards… so it’s not really receiving the award… but the opportunity to network, to meet great minds in Silicon Valley… see people who’ve gone through the same as you’ve gone through…We’ve seen scientists and inventors, visited Microsoft and Intel..we’ve seen people doing some encouraging things…Sometimes you think you are crazy doing this type of stuff, but you see that people are as crazy as you. You have to be crazy to be creative….” (We agreed there were LOTS of crazy creative people in Silicon Valley)
Why does Al Gore inspire him?
“To me, he’s a motivator and like a mentor. If someone like him can stand up and fight the cause of climate change and global warming and win the Nobel Prize, I think there’s a future for some of us, because we see him up there. What we are doing is also combating climate change… water pollution, so we think, in years to come we have a future.”
What is the ultimate vision for Cows to Kilowatts?
“To spread this innovation across Nigeria, most parts of Africa and other developing countries…The big innovation we have is to apply this technology to other types of waste, any organic waste…two years ago, we won an award from the World Bank. Currently we’re talking to breweries, dairy product companies so that their waste can be converted to electricity.”
The interview was recorded at the Silicon Valley Tech Awards on November 19, 2009. To read and hear more about the Tech Awards, including Al Gore’s rousing speech, click here
