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Vinisha Umashankar, a 14 year old class 9 student from Tamilnadu has won the prestigious Children’s Climate Prize for designing a mobile ironing cart that uses solar panels.
She will receive a prize of Rs 8.64 lakhs and a medal at a digital event from the Swedish Children’s Climate Foundation held by Isabelle Kovic, the Swedish Minister for Environment and Climate and the Deputy Prime Minister at the fifth edition of the Children’s Climate Prize distribution event. Vinisha was inspired to design this solar powered iron box as she used to see a mobile ironing cart near her house use charcoal to iron the clothes. After use, the charcoal would be spread to cool and then dumped into the garbage.
She thought of a viable alternative and it took two months for her to design the mobile cart. The mobile ironing cart would be fitted with a solar panel roof and connected to a 100 Ah battery. It would produce 250 watts of power per hour and would take 5 hours of bright sunshine to charge the battery that would steam the iron box for 6 hours. Vinisha has also been shortlisted for the Prime Minister of India’s Rashtriya Bal Shakti Puraskar, 2021 which is the highest civilian award in India for students under 18 years of age.
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