Meet the Kenyan teacher who turns old laptops into e-bike batteries

Your old laptop battery might one day power an electric bike.When Kenyan physics teacher Paul Waweru’s electric motorbike stopped working, he couldn’t travel to work.But the amateur inventor came up with an innovative solution: disused computer parts.“Nobody was selling electric bikes in Kenya, so I had to import one,” he explains.”Then, after a few months, the batteries were no longer working because of the technology. I was again grounded.”“Through my innovation, I was able to source low-cost batteries and that is how I ended up bumping into laptop batteries.”How do the laptop powered bikes work?Waweru purchases the old laptop batteries from Nairobi vendors at KSH 50 (€0.37) per piece.Back at his workshop, he divides the working cells from those which are not working – and creates a battery that can be reused.The teacher collects frames from old motorbikes, removes the…

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