Supernova team impressed with Young Designers at Eskom eta Awards

Publisher/Director Benoit Knox and Supernova Editor Andrea Vermaak were privileged to attend the Eskom eta Awards ceremony on 15 November. Among the winners of the prestigious annual awards were young designers who showed off their innovative ideas and initiative to save energy.

Daniel von Eschwege

All entrants in the Young Designers' 
category were very impressive, giving the Supernova team a new hope in the future of South Africa. The winner in the Young Designers – Individual category is Daniel von Eschwege (12), who designed a cost-effective solar water geyser system that can reduce a household energy bill by 40%. He hopes to produce these DIY packs and help poorer communities access hot water at an affordable price.

Daniel von Eschwege's solar water geyser

The runners-up in the above mentioned category are Daniella Oosthuizen and Keegan Cordeiro. Daniella designed a compost hot water system, while Keegan designed solar powered golf carts.

Girls Looking Forward

The Young Designers – Group category award went to the team of grade 8 girls, called 'Girls Looking Forward', from Bay College in Plettenberg Bay. The girls looked at how to reduce electricity consumption during cooking. By comparing cooking using a microwave, a stove-top and a clay oven, they found that using a clay oven is the most energy efficient method.

Girls Looking Forward

The runners-up are the Pretoria Boys High School team and the Cornwall College team. Ray Kruger, from Pretoria Boys High School, invented a way to generate electricity on a small scale directly from waste biomass through the process of gasification. Gregory van Wijk and Tyron Munn from Cornwall Hill College built a household electricity management system, the Angel Management System, designed to optimise use of the available electricity.

Ray Kruger

Ray Kruger's electricity generator

Gregory van Wijk and Tyron Munn 

The Angel Management System

We simply can't leave out the young designers of Bracken Hill EK Primary School from Knysna, who also blew us away with their initiative. To reduce their community's wood consumption, they developed a solar water heater for their school, using black pipe, as well as created a hotbox to cook and a clay oven that functions with just a handful of twigs and coal. The team also learnt how to make coals out of recycled paper.

Bracken Hill EK Primary School's solar water heater

Bracken Hill EK Primary School's clay oven

The Eskom eta Awards have been acknowledging and rewarding good work in energy efficiency since 1985, with winners receiving R30 000 each and the runners-up taking home R5000.

Dr Steve Lennon, Eskom Group Executive of Sustainability says: “South Africa is bursting with talent and nowhere is this more evident than at the annual Eskom eta Awards. More South Africans are looking for ways to save energy. Learners want to make a difference, householders are cutting costs, and engineers and large companies are working hard to reduce their use of electricity and save vital resources.” 

We can't agree more with Dr Lennon and want to congratulate all those who took part in saving energy this year!

Competition: win a copy of Supernova!

What are you doing to save energy? If you are 18 and under, let us know by leaving a comment below this post, or by emailing andrea@bkpublishing.co.za. You can win a copy of Supernova magazine!