****EXCLUSIVE****
KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Eighteen year old science student Milan Karki (second from right) demonstrates his innovative solar panel made with human hair in a tiny barber shop in Kathmandu.
The handmade solar-hair panel is believed to be the first of its kind using human hair as a cheap alternative to silicon in modern solar panels. The solar-hair panel is estimated to be four times cheaper than an industrial made solar panel of comparable capacity. The inventor, Milan Karki, an eighteen year old science student, grew up in a small village too remote to be connected to the Nepalese electricity grid. Growing up without electricity motivated him to become a science student in Kathmandu and to devote his time and studies to look for renewable energy sources. The solar-hair panel prototype costs USD 45 or £27.5 and has an output of 9 Volt and 18 Watt, but by fine-tuning the panel the output can be increased and the price lowered. Many remote areas in Nepal are deprived of electricity and the nation as a whole suffers power cuts on a daily basis all year round. Young Mr. Karki hopes that his invention can benefit all those who have no access to electricity or are too poor to connect to the grid.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Tom Van Cakenberghe / BARCROFT MEDIA LTD.
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