U Sha Prue

Myanmar's forgotten inventor who developed sustainable energy solutions in British colonial era

In 1920s Rangoon, self-taught engineer U Sha Prue (1898-1976) built Southeast Asia's first biofuel-powered electricity generator using modified diesel engines that ran on pongamia pinnata oil. His Irrawaddy Delta installations provided affordable power to 37 villages years before rural electrification programs.

Prue's innovations included:

• Hybrid wind/hydro systems using traditional bamboo water wheels
• Carbon-sequestration charcoal production techniques
• Myanmar's first solar reflector oven (1932)

When British engineers tried to commercialize his patents, Prue famously declared: 'Light should flow like the Irrawaddy - free to all children of Burma.' He established technical schools training over 2,000 students in vernacular engineering between 1935-1950.

His 1946 Rangoon Conference paper 'Sustainable Mechanization for Tropical Agriculture' predated modern appropriate technology movements by decades. Though suppressed during military rule, Prue's bamboo turbine designs are now being revived by Myanmar's green energy startups.