Cebuanos invent energy self-reliant vehicle

It’s a bike, it’s a cart, it’s train, but its inventors call it Secret.

Environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa Jr. teamed-up with mechanic Brian Yuson of Compostela town to come up with the Self-contained Renewable Energy Transport or Secret, which is powered by solar, wind energy and yes, the padyak or pedal.

The invention impressed a mechanical engineer from the National University of Singapore (NUS) who inspected the Cebuano creation.

“I was impressed with the self-contained renewable energy vehicle concept when I first heard it from Prof. Oposa when he was in NUS last year, so I came over to take a look,” said Nelson Lo, a mechanical engineer with a Masters in Environmental Management in a press statement.

The semi-train is run by a bank of batteries that convert heat and kinetic energy into electrical energy to power a motor.

The batteries are charged from three renewable energy sources – a solar panel, pedal, and wind.

Unlike other electric vehicles which are charged by plugging its batteries to an external source of electricity, the Secret is self-contained.

The energy comes from the vehicle itself and does not need to be plugged into an electric socket that is usually powered by fossil fuels (coal or bunker oil).

Lo said that the invention shows that renewable energy in the form of solar and human-power is the way of the future.

He also said that the invention could be a solution to much of the transport problems of the world without burning global-warming fossil fuels.

“We cannot go on burning fossil fuels and taking up so much space just to transport people from one point to another.

“This Filipino invention by two Cebuanos shows that renewable energy in the form of solar and human-power (in the pedaling that charges the batteries) is the way of the future,” said Lo.

Durwood Zaelke, a world-renowned Environmental Law professor, author and an authority on International Environmental Law said: “It is quite interesting that Singapore, a model city of the world, would study an invention of ordinary Filipinos who made this prototype out of cheap and recycled materials.

“It brings back images of the Wright brothers, a couple of bicycle repairmen, inventing the airplane from scrap materials when well-funded engineers could not even come up with a working design.”

The Singaporean engineer plans to fabricate the Secret and try it in the ex-railway that runs from southern to northern Singapore, near Malaysia. This railway is now designated the Green Corridor where combustion vehicles are not allowed.

Oposa and Yuson were provided logistical support by fellow Cebuanos Martin Alfaro and Rene Mercado and Narciso Alfaro of Ormoc City in the production of Secret. /Correspondent Joy Cherry Quito