As a mechanical engineer, and the fact the we all, in developing countries like India,  face power cuts frequently, or have heard sometime or the other about deficiency of power acting as an impediment to the development, I have come up with a new idea which could not only end all the power issues in deficient countries, but also increase the overall standard of living, by bringing more people above the poverty line and be a minor boost in the transformation of our developing nation into a developed one. 

As we all know, India is primarily an agriculture dominated country, 70% to be precise. But the situation is different for farmers in India and other parts of the world. Here we have uneducated farmers, more dependency on the unpredictable monsoon, fights over land, disputes over sale price, regular farmer suicides. We also know, or have read somewhere in our textbook, that developing countries like ours have an abundant, cheap labor force. I plan to use this labor into working for a common project, which will not only bring a better yield and income to them and the country, but also raise the standard of the nation and partially remove the tag of being JUST an agricultural country.

Most of us might have studied the simple principle of a Generator, the one use with turbines etc to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. A coil of conducting material is made to rotate between the poles of a magnet, generating electricity. Due to the nature of humans taking the lazy easy way out, we have not only grown weak due to lack of physical work and exercise, but we are becoming too much dependant on technology. I propose to make a human-fueled power factory, which will, including accomplishing all the above goals, will also reduce the burden of unemployment on the nation.

The idea is a simple one. We create a large, well ventilated factory floor, with rows of seats, spaced suitably, in an slightly inclined floor, the kind we see in university lecture rooms. Underneath each seat, we provide a insulated bicycle pedal, attached to a coil, which in turn is placed between a large magnet, running the length of the row from one end to another, common to all the seats in the same row. everything is well insulated to provide for the safety of the workers. two sets of inclined rows will face each other in each block of a factory. the inclination makes it possible to have more blocks in lesser space. the two facing blocks will have an aisle, open at both ends for fresh air to pass in. The factory will be preferably located in the farmlands.

Workers will come in shifts, sit on their seats, and run their pedals, as if they are riding a bicycle or exercising on a treadmill. This exercise combined with the fresh farm air will improve the person's health in a minor way. People will have the freedom to get up and go for walks, without disturbing the power generation flow, as the other pedals will cover up for one missing. Trained technicians and medical officers will be on patrol in the aisles below, keeping order if needed and providing help if necessary. Using large numbers of factories like these, we are achieving the following goals :-

1) Large numbers of farmers who adopt for the job will sell their small areas land to one farmer. Thus they make an initial profit and get a better job in the energy sector, which pays them by the hour, increasing their standard of living.

2) The few remaining farmers, who buy all the small areas of land, will now have large cumulated areas, thus increasing his yield, thereby increasing his profits and standard of living.

3) As no technical knowledge is required for the power factory, we can convince people to join the new factory, providing them with the above said examples and reassuring them a better future.

4) If we can manage this feat in most of the farmlands of our country, then the nation slowly transcends above from being just an agricultural dominated country, thereby increasing the overall standard of the country.

5) If point no. 4 above is achieved, then the cumulated power from all of the factories in various states will be enough to practically abolish the deficiency of power in our country.

6) Since there is no discharge problem or health hazard, this is a very clean and environment friendly power generation technique.

Mechanically speaking, the above design of Human-fueled generator may not have a high electrical efficiency (which I doubt), but then other environment polluting, high cost incurring power and dangerous sources like coal, uranium, nuclear fuel have their disadvantages too. If incorporated, this will be the cleanest fuel generation method in the whole world.