Indian student designs safe and sustainable solar ironing cart | The world is good

Indian student designs safe and sustainable solar ironing cart

It’s not uncommon to see ironing vendor carts in the streets of Indian cities. These carts offer quick and affordable ironing services, but their irons are often powered by charcoal, creating air pollution issues. To address this, Vinisha Umashankar, a clever 14-year-old student from Tamil Nadu, created a mobile ironing cart that runs off solar power.

The cart, called Iron-Max, uses rooftop solar panels to capture energy from India’s 300 sunny days per year. That energy is then used or stored in the cart’s battery for later use. When it’s dark out or the sun isn’t shining, the cart operates off the battery which can store six hours of iron power.

Umashankar was inspired to create the solar cart after realizing the impact that charcoal production and use has on the environment and public health. The production of charcoal requires reforestation and creates carbon emissions while the burning of charcoal also generates emissions and contributes to respiratory issues. Fortunately, Umashankar’s cart eliminates these hazards without impacting the livelihoods of ironing vendors. The cart even has a horn to alert potential customers of its presence.

The solar ironing cart design has been nominated for the Earthshot Prize, a prestigious award “designed to incentivize change and help repair our planet.”