At 15, this girl plans to harvest energy from rainwater

By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, Nov 29 (IANS) When you can make energy from wind, why not from rainwater? This question from her father inspired their 15-year-old girl from Azerbaijan to set up a company to do exactly that.

Reyhan Camalova is the youngest female entrepreneur attending the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) here with the theme "Women first, Prosperity for all".

The Class 9 student was one of the three entrepreneurs referred to by US President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump in her speech at the inaugural session.

"Reyhan is 15 years old. But that hasn't stopped her from founding a company that harvests energy from rainwater," Ivanka said

"Reyhan has a powerful motto - Light up one house at a time. Reyhan, each home you light up is illuminating the world. We are all inspired by your brilliance and hard work," she added.

Reyhan is attending the GES for the first time and is trying to find investors for her start-up Rainergy.

"I am looking for investment for making energy device," the teenaged CEO and Founder of Rainergy told IANS on the sidelines of the summit.

The girl, who hails from a middle class family, needs $20,000 to set up a manufacturing unit and to reach the global market.

Keen to have a partner in her start-up and enter the Indian market, she got an opportunity to participate in the pitch competition.

Coming from Quba region of Azerbaijan, she likes chemistry, physics and mathematics among other subjects at school. Some of her school mates and physicists have joined hands to work on the project.

"Rainwater has huge potential if utilized properly," said the girl, who has designed a smart generator to harvest energy from the rain.

"The initial prototype of Rainergy produces 22W of power and lightens up to 22 LED lamps. While piezoelectric rain generators produce only 25 microwatt of power, our model is much more efficient in comparison with similar systems," she added

It also stores energy in the accumulator so that it can be used even there is no rain at all.

Reyhan claims that rain energy reduces the amount of CO2 emissions to 10 g per KW/hour during the production of the electricity. "This amount is very low compared to the other current alternative energy solutions," she added.

(Mohammad Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in)