Miguel Borbón

"The technology developed by this innovative young man has enabled the small town of Calahorra, in the Choco region, at the very heart of the Columbian tropical rain forest, to receive sufficient energy in a stable, clean and low-priced manner.

Miguel Borbón is an Electronic Engineer and the creator of Acuavatio, a turbine that is adapted to the climatic requirements and characteristics of the rivers of poor and isolated areas of Colombia; this turbine is capable of providing energy which can be used on a daily basis by a riverside community in an economical and sustainable way.

What's more, it harnesses a sustainable resource in the form of the flow of the rivers of the area such as the Amazon, Negro, Cauca, or in the case of Calahorra, the Muguindó. The Acuavatio, based on the Garman turbine system, comprises a rotor which plunges into the river and harnesses the kinetic energy of the water. The energy is transferred to an electricity generator and distributed from this point to the households of the town. This simple system is able to utilize the current of approximately one meter per second to supply the town with somewhere in the region of 250 and 400 watts of electrical power in a stable way.

Miguel started developing the Acuavatio while he was working at the renewable energy firm Aprotec. In 2012, the project was included as a Development of National Interest in the IDEASS catalog of Maloka and the PNUD and it was granted external funding. Borbón is presently creating a pre-payment system for the electricity generated by the Acuavatio which is supposed to make the system economically sustainable in the context of the town."