First Published in
sOccket is a soccer ball with the potential to provide simple, clean, off-the-grid electricity to developing nations.
Developed by four undergraduate students in a Harvard University engineering class, sOccket uses an inductive coil mechanism, similar to those found in shake-to-use torches. The movement of the ball pushes a magnet through a coil, which creates a voltage that generates electricity. Weighing a little more than a standard soccer ball, it’s able to capture the energy generated while playing with the ball and store it for use at a later stage.
The idea is that children in poor communities in developing nations can kick the sOccket around after school, a favourite pastime anyway, and then take the ball home where they can plug a lamp into the ball when it gets dark. For every 15 minutes of ball play the sOccket stores enough energy to power a small LED light for three hours.
The latest sOccket 2.0 was manufactured by Cape Town design agency Dot Dot Dot Ex Why Zed.
