The OLPC project is looking to use cows as the power source for remote networks and PCs – no cow pies involved.

Cow pies, cow burps, even cow gas, have all been considered as power sources by alternative energy theorists. Now, however, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project is getting to work on something a little more suitable for dinner-table conversation. Rather than using by-products of the cow’s existence, the OLPC project is looking to take advantage of the cow’s endurance, by placing the friendly bovines on (or in) devices rigged to electrical generators.

By combining found parts such as bicycle wheels and automotive pulleys and belts to form a gear-and-pulley system, the team hope to harness the cow’s walking power and direct it through a dynamo sourced from an old Fiat motor, reports PC World. Bovine power is very dependable and inexpensive, even when compared to sources like wind, water and solar power. In some places those options aren’t technologically available or environmentally feasible. Cows, however, are found almost everywhere throughout the developing world. Likewise, the mechanism itself can be constructed from what might otherwise be considered junk, like old car parts and broken bicycles.

The OLPC project has failed to meet its goal of delivering its laptops at a cost of only $100 per unit, with estimates of the total cost nearing $200 per unit, and the project has at times had a precarious outlook but it soldiers on toward its admirable goal. Starting next month, you can help out with the “Give 1, Get 1″ program that lets consumers purchase a laptop for the price of two, the second laptop going to a child in need. You can find out more about the Give 1, Get 1 program at OLPC’s official wiki.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 2:37 pm under Notebook, Science and technology.

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