Design options
Option 1:
Design option 1 was to build a generator powered by a closed system steam engine which is power by wood that is abundant in the area. This design is easy to build since the only two major components would be the engine and turbine which we chose to be basic and easy to use. Other than those are just piping and a container for the water. The steam engine will be accessible to specific members in the village which will be trained for minor maintenance in case of a fault. More than one steam engine would be built to fulfill the electrical usage of the village or at least the minimum requirement that is needed. The engine will produce power to houses for daily use such as lighting cooking and probably heating. The downside of this option is the amount of resources needed to produce energy to convert the water into steam, of course once it starts not a lot of energy would be lost, rather some of the energy will be used to maintain the heating of the water thus reducing the amount of wood needed to keep it running. The image bellow is an example or a homemade steam generator. http://www.alternativeenergynow.org/skagit_donkey.htm

Option 2:
Option 2 is windmills. Windmills are an easy reliable source of energy since wind is a renewable source. They are one of the simplest ideas to go with yet they require a large area and need open space so that the fans could be rotated by the wind. Of course they could be installed on top of the hill where there are fewer obstacles in the way of the wind yet there is not enough space to install more than one; and one is not enough to supply the sufficient amount of electricity to the village for daily usage. Not to mention the amount of noise pollution that will be produced by the large rotating fans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine

Option 3:
Solar bottles are one of our minor ideas to get light into indoor areas. The idea of a solar bottle is simple where a glass or plastic bottle is filled with clear water and is inserted in the roof where half of the bottle is outside the house and the other half is inside the house. It works by refracting light from the sun into the house. The advantage of this method is that no large generators or objects are needed since it’s a natural source which is renewable, yet the amount of light coming in cannot be controlled since the weather is uncontrollable. For example clouds blocking the sun, which lowers the amount of light refracted, and at night there is no light source except the moon light which is not as powerful or concentrated as the sun’s rays. http://gb-sb.blogspot.ae/2011/12/how-solar-bottle-bulbs-works-and-liter.html

Option 4:
Cow mills, an idea we came up with while thinking about windmills. It’s the same idea as windmills where instead of using wind to move the turbines we use cattle instead. Wind cannot be harnessed which means we don’t control the power of the wind to generate more power, thus the Cow Mill. We mixed the idea of flour mills which uses cows to rotate a wheel that crushes wheat into flour and wind turbines. Instead of the cattle moving a heavy wheel to crush objects they rotate gears which rotate turbines, those turbines will produce electricity which can be stored into batteries for later use. The downside of this is the hard work on the animals which could exhaust them and not make them fit for food supply, and the amount of energy produced won’t be up to the standards needed by the village.