A FLAT-PACK wind turbine designed by a teenager and created by engineers from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) could help in disaster situations.

The portable turbine was on display at COP26 after the idea was handpicked from 11,000 entries in a national competition run by the not-for-profit organisation Primary Engineer.

It was invented by Douglas Macartney when he was just 15 and developed by several teams of undergraduate engineers from GCU, working over several years to create a viable prototype.

Douglas said: “Working with the team at GCU has been great.

"It has been amazing to see how an idea on paper has been turned into a working prototype.

"I have found it interesting to see how it has evolved over time and the process of working on a project like this.

"It has brought many opportunities and has resulted in far more than I would have thought possible when I was coming up with the design."

Glasgow Times:

The original concept was inspired by a flat-pack refugee shelter created by Swedish furniture giant Ikea.

Developers hope the turbine might one day be mass-produced to generate electricity for refugee camps where there is no access to a power source for cooking and lighting.

The device, which can be assembled without any specialist training, could also be used to help areas recovering from natural disasters and in rural settlements far from grid connection.

More than 50,000 entries are submitted to the Leader's Award across the UK annual with university teams picking ideas to prototype.

It is a Primary Engineer project and supported by a range of partners including the RAF, CAA, Network Rail, WEIR Group, Scottish Engineering and many others, who selected the wind turbine as one of 15 shortlisted concepts.

Dr Andrew Cowell, a senior lecturer at GCU and supervisor of the project, said: "It was a very mature concept.

"We've taken Douglas’s idea and put a lot of engineering thought into it.

"The prototype is small but the wind turbine could generate enough electricity to power a light and two USBs sockets in a disaster relief zone or a refugee camp.

"The recent addition of solar panels was inspired partly by Douglas’ original idea, and partly from feedback from an Innovate UK research bid partner.

"All our calculations show the concept is viable. It's a brilliant idea."

Primary Engineer looks to provide young people from all backgrounds the chance to access a career in engineering, science and technology by bringing engineers and an engineering curriculum into primary and secondary classrooms.

Dr Susan Scurlock, founder of Primary Engineer and an honorary graduate of GCU, said: “We are delighted to showcase the work of GCU students, how they have taken a pupil’s drawing of an idea and made it into not only a physical object, but a wonderfully engineered and useful one at that.

"Our aim is to encourage the creativity of young people in solving problems and link that to the knowhow of engineers.”