Empower playgrounds

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Empower Playgrounds, Inc. is a U.S. Registered 501(c)(3) company that is developing playground systems designed to extract a fraction of the energy children exert while at play and store it in a battery. This energy can then be used to power lights or for other purposes. The primary application of this patent pending technology is in rural third-world settings.

1 Current Projects
2 History
3 Collaborations
4 Related Projects
5 External Links
6 References

[edit] Current Projects

A working prototype is has been installed at a school in Ghana. The nonprofit organization is planning on installing six power playgrounds in 2008 near and around Accra, Ghana. In the Fall of 2008 Ben Markham is planing on turning over the oversight of the organization to a BYU graduate with an MPA. Currently there are 14 BYU interns working in Ghana. Empower playgrounds prefers BYU students.

[edit] History

Empower Playgrounds, Inc. was founded in March 2007. The initial idea was devised by Ben Markham. a retired chemical engineer former vice-president of engineering for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, while serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Accra, Ghana.

Undergraduate students from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Brigham Young University developed the initial proof-of-concept prototype as a capstone project.¹