By Winnie Kamau
It is every Boy’s dream to own a car and for a few the thought of making one gives them a high adrenaline concentration.
During a recent , African Union on the Forum of Women empowerment and celebrations of Wangari Maathai Day held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.A Swedish-Kenyan inventor stole the show.
The 49 year old Svante Naess wowed his audience by explaining how the solar powered car works. Globally nations are looking for innovations and solutions that are using renewable clean sources of energy to lower carbon emissions. In the recent COP21 a Climate Change Treaty was agreed upon by 200 governments of the world to keep global warming below 2° C and limit increase to 1.5° C that are destroying our climate. With developed countries expected to raise USD 100 billion. per year until 2025 when a new collective goal will be set.
“It has always been my dream since I was a young boy to build my own car .” Explains Svante whose dream began at Kenyan a place he calls home , Meru National park. The avant garde built an Eco lodge from scratch in Murera springs on a 20 acre piece of land alongside his 3 business partners. The Eco lodge has 10 cabins and are all solar powered.
It was at Murera Springs lodge Svante nursed the idea of owning a solar powered game drive car. Here he came up with ideas which he put pen into paper but it was not until his move to the capital city of New Flower (Addis) in Ethiopia that he had enough time to actually put his dream to action with his first car- a solar powered Jeep. The Jeep was from his toy cars collection in the 70s.
“I built the suspension, steering wheel” Svante explains as he is constructing his new model a Lamborghini adding “My kids love Lamborghini and told me they want a Lamborghini which am currently working on”.
The Marine Engineer has had the privilege to talk to students on TEDx talks in Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAIT) where he has encouraged many students subsequently to be innovative . “It is possible to make your own things powered by solar .” Svante has been an inspiration to Lecturers also attracting great attention.
The Father of two who is currently working on his fourth car appreciates the old model cars which are manually driven. “My dream is to help the farmer who has an old farm car and transform it to solar power which is cost friendly” The passionate Swedish-Kenyan inventor has his eyes on farmers and wants them to be his biggest beneficiary. “ I want to have a big factory where farmers can bring their cars and we can fix solar panels and they can be able to transport their produce to and from the market with minimal costs .”
The Solar car also acts as a power backup during power rationing periods that is experienced by many countries in Africa. Svante gives the multipurpose usage of his solar car. “I have created a parallel system in the house for lighting with LED lights which are energy efficient .” Adding, “I have so much power from the panels in the car and I get to light up the house for many days.”
The Solar powered car runs on a Electric engine, an old gear box with four powered batteries and Two and half HorsePower driving at 35Kmph. The electric engine runs on solar and not crude oil which assures lack of fuel gases emitted to the atmosphere. Most countries in Africa are ever blazing with a lot of heat from the ever present sun. We all look forward to the day we will have solar Car plant and have all this solar powered cars being driven on our roads as Svante has shown us it is possible.
