This July, NSTAR will be offering an exciting new option for customers - the option to have your electricity supplied by renewable sources.
Highlights
Basic Service customers will be able to choose to have half or all of their electricity come from NSTAR Green.
There will be an additional premium for this option. While exact pricing still needs to be approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, the NSTAR Green option will, on average, add an additional $4 to $7 a month to your bill, depending on the NSTAR Green option chosen.
The program is initially offering electricity generated from Maple Ridge Wind Farm in upstate New York.
From the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) newsletter:
The manager of the UCS Northeast Clean Energy Project, John Rogers, led a coalition of clean energy advocates that worked with NSTAR on the program’s design. The coalition, which included UCS, the Conservation Law Foundation and Environment Massachusetts, also testified before the state’s Department of Public Utilities.
To power the program, NSTAR has signed 10-year contracts for 60 megawatts of wind power from two wind farms: one in New York, the other in Maine. These long-term contracts help renewable energy project developers get financing and help lower the cost of renewable energy. Meanwhile, encouraging renewable energy development diversifies the region’s energy supply and protects customers from spikes in the price of other energy sources, such as natural gas. All customers will benefit from the wind contracts.
Customers who select one of the green power options on their bills would pay premiums above the basic plan to reduce global warming pollution. Most of the nation’s electricity production comes from fossil fuels, mainly coal, which is the nation’s biggest source of global warming pollution. By contrast, wind power and other renewable sources of energy do not produce global warming emissions.
To pre-enroll in the program, you will need to supply your account number, zip-code and email address (optional).
The 2008 Metropolis Magazine Next Generation design competition challenged young architects and designers to create a sustainable solution to make the world better, and safer, with ideas related to the theme of ‘water.’ We are thrilled to announce that this year’s $10,000 prize was awarded to San Francisco based architect and CCA professor Eric Olsen! Olsen’s winning design is a Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, a revolutionary design that promises to provide portable and potable water anywhere that it is needed.
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The tough tarpaulin is composed of laser cut LDPE and rubberized nylon and it expands to hold up to 20 liters of water, which is rendered drinkable after five hours of exposure to the sun. This purification method is approved by the World Health Organization, and uses passive solar heat and ultraviolet radiation to kill disease causing bacteria. The tarpaulin’s beauty is in its simplicity: it’s quick, efficient, and requires no filter, chemicals, or additional energy expenditure.
Cynicism alert: Promises, eh? Wake me up when it’s out in the field.
It’s very pretty (I do like the saguaro cactus inspiration), but it sounds like it will be rather expensive to produce compared to other solar disinfection (SODIS) bags. It also looks a bit hard to carry/cumbersome. Perhaps doable if you have a donkey or other animal. It might make more sense to leave the thing at home, fill your normally used 20L container and transfer water once you get back.
On the “requires no filter”piece: all SODIS bags require some level of particle filtration. The water needs to be clear for the ultra-violet rays to work their magic and I would suspect that most water sources that people are drawing from range from slightly cloudy to turbid.
Judging from the pictures, the material also looks really thick. I’d be interested in seeing the UV penetration stats.
2008 Next Generation Design Prize Runners-Up:
Andrea Brivio, Davide Conti, and Fabio Galli (Italy): S_M_L, a housing project designed for the city of Melaka, Malaysia, that harnesses the power of the region’s daily rainfall and uses it to produce electricity and replenish gray water systems.
Yuichi Watanabe, Katz Miyahara, and Yoshi Ogawa (Seattle): Polarfloat, large floating structures in the Arctic Ocean that provide places for polar bears to land as the ice melts.
Joseph Cory, Eyal Malka, and Creative Constructions (Israel): WatAir, a simple unit with an integrated infrastructure for collecting dew and rainwater.
Paul Giacomantonio, Vera Templeman, William Sorich, and Kat Taylor (Pescadero, CA): “The Sun Curve,” a self-sustaining aquaponic food growing system, powered by solar and wind energy.
Charles Lee (San Francisco): Pacific Coast Interpretive Center for Ocean Health, living systems that recycle gray water and runoff by filtering wetlands, cooling the gray water with ocean water, and producing energy with tidal generators.
Lars Mayer (Germany): Sustainable Water, a surface water purification solution that is suited to the needs of developing countries and based on natural processes, using the seeds of the moringa tree.
Robyn Perkins (Boston): emergeMUMBAI, a method of rainwater harvesting that is used as a spatial backbone, a flood mitigation tool, and a water source for redeveloping public housing lands in Mumbai, India.
Gerald Lindner, Jeroen Tacx, Beate Lendt, Peter Heidman, and Martin Oostenrijk (Netherlands): Water Harvester, a double-tubed solar water distiller that is made of polyethylene film and uses a solar-powered water desalinator to make fresh water from polluted or salt water.
Renata Fenton and Enrique Lomnitz (Mexico): Isla Urbana, small, modular, inexpensive and expandable rainwater harvesting systems that can be affordably purchased by the low-income households in Mexico City most affected by the rapidly increasing water shortages.
Thomas Kosbau and Tyson Gillard (New York): Vena: Water Courses from Air, a biomimetic low-cost, low-energy solution for people in climates that lack consistent rainfall or clean ground sources to harvest vast amounts of drinking water from the atmosphere.
Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits TechShop, an open-access public workshop that’s kind of like a health club with heavy machinery and sparks instead of treadmills. Tinkerers, inventors, and hackers pay a membership fee, and in turn receive access to professionally-maintained gear, workshops, mentors, and a community of like-minded makers.
Currently there is only one site in Silicon Valley, and it opened in 2006. But founder Jim Newton (a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster) plans to open a number of locations around the US — and eventually, the rest of the world.
TechShop Equipment
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(800) 640-1975
Open 9:00 AM to Midnight 7 Days a Week (except major holidays)
What is your intern project?
My project has been improving the Pelton turbine design of the micro-hydro system and helping XelaTeco build its capacity to produce bronze turbines in house. The first part of my job was learning everything about our first install at Nueva Alianza, what worked about the turbine and what needed improvement. We modified the cup design and wanted to get three standardized sizes of turbine for XelaTeco to produce. Once the design modifications were complete, I had to figure out how we were going to make these cups out of bronze here in Guatemala. Cups for the Nueva Alianza turbine were made in Huehuetenango by an experienced foundry caster and members of the XelaTeco team. My current work has involved determining what type of casting is most feasible here, creating a production scheme that has a reasonable time scale, learning to make sand molds, and building a furnace and a burner.
Modified Pelton turbine - Solidworks
Describe what your normal day as an AIDG intern is like.
Normal is definitely a bit hard to come by in Guatemala, so in general I’d have to say my day is varied. My days involve everything from emailing with metal and foundry experts in the US to sourcing materials by walking and taking micro-buses all over Xela to firing up the furnace and pouring some molten metal. My days tend to also include fixing computers at some point, making sand molds or constructing something while making jokes with the guys at XelaTeco. Some of my favorite days are when I get to go out to communities to do installation work or site evaluation, which involves traipsing through rivers. The thing that happens with the most regularity to be honest is refracion, Guatemalan snack time at 10:30am, which I either enjoy with XelaTeco or go out and find snacks for the whole AIDG office.
What are the main challenges you face?
The main challenges I face center on the fact that I’m in Guatemala. It can be hard to find materials and that can get even trickier with the foreign language involved because some things don’t translate directly. The pace of the country is different, so I have to learn when to be patient because there is no other option and when to push because I only have so long down here. The other major challenge is trying to figure out how to help XelaTeco and give them the capacity to produce these technologies, while insuring that they feel ownership of their business and gain independence.
What has been the most rewarding moment for you?
It’s hard to think that one moment has been the most rewarding in my time here. Seeing my project progress and XelaTeco grow is something that I can really only see by looking at the span of my time here. If I had to pick one moment it would probably be the day that I fired up my propane burner for the first time, set up some Baldosa bricks and successfully melted a bronze elbow I had tracked down from at a metal recycler. That was the moment it was clear everything could work: the burner and the brick would work for the furnace. I had already found local sand and clay for making the molds. It was the moment when all the pieces were finally there and all that was left was to put them together.
Who have you met who has inspired you the most and why?
I have been inspired by a number of people in a number of ways during my time here. The people who I work with every day have been amazing because I often find that rather how hard something is to do or the odds that this install will work exactly the way they are planned are focused on how to get something done and working right. We’ve all had setbacks and I’ve seen everyone push through them because they believe what they are doing is going to help. The other people that inspire me are the community members- what I remember one man telling me that the reason the community had taken out the loan, bought the land and was willing to live in poverty was so that their children could live a better life. To hear him see past all the struggles he was living towards the future was incredibly moving.
Why did you choose AIDG? What inspired you about the model?
I chose AIDG because there are so many stories about technology being put in places and then falling into disrepair when foreign aid leaves. By building a business the local people are truly empowered to maintain these technologies and the use of local materials insures that things can fixed or replaced if they break. There is a phone number to call when something breaks and some one who speaks the language and lives in the country on the other end of the line. The model also demands that sustainable technology make economic sense, which is also the only way I think it will ever really take hold.
TRAVELERS who don’t trust the water from a mountain stream or a hotel-room faucet have often used chemicals or filters to purify it. Now they have a high-tech option as well: swirl the water with a portable, lightweight wand that beams rays of ultraviolet light.
Video at Steripen booth from 2007’s annual Travel Goods Show in Las Vegas.
Duration: 4min 39 sec
How to use the Steripen JourneyLCD
Duration: 7min 2sec
SteriPen JourneyLCD
Available at REI, LL Bean, etc.
Retails at $129.95 (Ouch!)
Uses CR123 Batteries, most often seen in digital cameras.
Deep in the remote highlands of Quiche, Guatemala lies the Ixil Maya community of Chel, where villagers are managing their own 165kW micro-hydro system, supplying power to over 400 households, through community enterprise. The Asociacion Hidroelectrica Chelense (AHC) is responsible for administration, operation and maintenance of the energy services scheme and is believed to be the first time that an indigenous people’s organization has benefited from the global carbon credit market.
We visited last week, with our local partners Fundacion Solar, a local NGO that has been active since 1995 promoting renewable energy and Saul Santos of Intervida Guatemala to learn more.
As we arrived there was a buzz in the air. Children were dressed in their finest traditional traje and the streets were lined with pine needles. The special occasion was the change over of the Junta Directiva (Board of Directors) of the AHC, which had been voted in democratically by the community. It was inspiring to see the level of community investment in the project, as we sat and watched the ceremony in the main square.
The changing of the Junta Directiva in the Parque Central
An essential theme of the project in Chel is the participation of local villagers. An initial community consultation process ensured that all members of the community had a good understanding of the potential project and the technology and agreed to the proposed plans for a tariff structure. Each family agreed to contribute with 80 days of labor to help in the civil works, in exchange for entry into the scheme, connection to the grid and home wiring. We were also amazed to learn that the community hand-build the mountain road in order to transport the equipment for their micro hydro system. When the rivers were too high to traverse, teams of men carried the huge electrical poles on their backs for miles to reach the remote community.
Women outside an electric-powered mill in Chel
The result is marvelous; the AHC is currently generating enough income from electricity sales to sustain their operation and maintenance costs. It also promotes the productive use of energy sources and has instigated economic development in the community, including the start up of a number of small enterprises. Here at AIDG Guatemala we are really interested in managing our Micro Hydro systems in a similar manner and it was a fantastic opportunity to see speak to the people in AHC and the consumers.
Duration: 16 min 41 sec (Spanish)
This episode looks at the example of the use of geothermal power in the production of dried fruit by Agroindustrias La Laguna. It also looks at the construction of a micro hydroelectric plant in Chel, Quiche, by the Asociación Hidroeléctrica Chelense (AHC), founded in 2001 with the support of the Fundación Solar. (around 6 min 42 sec)
Our next destination was to a potential microhydro site in Aquil Grande, Alta Verapaz, an epic journey through remote highland passes. On our way through the stunning valley heading from Chel back to Nebaj we passed through a huge construction site. Saul explained it was a 93MW Hydro-electric plant being built by a private company to sell the power to Union Fenosa, Guatemala’s private energy supplier to the rural poor (at inflated prices to the tariffs for urbanites..!).
Big = Better?
Cables will take power generated away from the area (where many communities still lack electricity) to a sub-station in Quetzaltenango. It reminded me of the lessons of Schumacher’s ‘Small is Beautiful’ and the value in small, simple and locally beneficial, appropriate technology. I pondered this and felt inspired about the huge capacity for AIDGs work as we bumped along the winding road!
The community of Aquil Grande is home to around 500 people, who are currently paying high electricity tariffs, particularly for their public street lighting. After clambering about in the stream with community members to conduct tests, it proved to be more than sufficient for a system to provide electricity for the coffee processing machinery, street lighting and the school, which is currently without power.
Intern Alex Surasky-Ysasi testing stream flow
The idea is to run the scheme in a similar model to Chel, with a community association running the scheme and selling the power to the coffee cooperative, powering the school and providing public street lighting at a third of the current cost. Therefore not only will it build technical and administrative capacity in the community, making the scheme more self-sustainable, but will also reduce the burden of expensive power bills, stimulate new businesses and help the coffee co-operative compete in the global marketplace.
In a recent NYTimes Magazine piece on whether cell-phones can end poverty in developing countries, we get introduced to Jan Chipchase, Nokia’s “human-behavior researcher”. His job is to be a “design and usability ethnographer“, to find out how users in different countries actually use their cell phones and help the designers back home figure out what features they need. He moves from a Vietnamese barbershop to a Mississippi bowling alley, from a Brazilian phone booth to the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.
This sort of on-the-ground intelligence-gathering is central to what’s known as human-centered design, a business-world niche that has become especially important to ultracompetitive high-tech companies trying to figure out how to write software, design laptops or build cellphones that people find useful and unintimidating and will thus spend money on.Several companies, including Intel, Motorola and Microsoft, employ trained anthropologists to study potential customers, while Nokia’s researchers, including Chipchase, more often have degrees in design. Rather than sending someone like Chipchase to Vietnam or India as an emissary for the company — loaded with products and pitch lines, as a marketer might be — the idea is to reverse it, to have Chipchase, a patently good listener, act as an emissary for people like the barber or the shoe-shop owner’s wife, enlightening the company through written reports and PowerPoint presentations on how they live and what they’re likely to need from a cellphone, allowing that to inform its design.
The premise of the work is simple — get to know your potential customers as well as possible before you make a product for them. But when those customers live, say, in a mud hut in Zambia or in a tin-roofed hutong dwelling in China, when you are trying — as Nokia and just about every one of its competitors is — to design a cellphone that will sell to essentially the only people left on earth who don’t yet have one, which is to say people who are illiterate, making $4 per day or less and have no easy access to electricity, the challenges are considerable.
This tactic is likely part of why Nokia is doing so well in emerging markets.
[In January], Nokia announced that it had sold a record 133.5 million mobile phones during the fourth quarter of 2007. This figure was up by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier, boosting its overall market share to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, Nokia rival Motorola reported Wednesday that shipments of its handsets had fallen 38 percent during the quarter, pushing its market share down yet again to 12 percent, the lowest level since 2001. But Motorola isn’t the only handset maker struggling; Sony Ericsson has also had trouble growing its market share. The company, which targets the high-end market in Europe, only grew its market share in 2007 by 2 points to 9 percent.
Nokia reported that it saw the strongest growth in sales in the Middle East and Africa. Shipments here were up 52.3 percent. Asia-Pacific and China also saw strong sales growth, while sales in mature markets like North America fell during the quarter.
For more of Jan’s work/though process, you can read his intriguing blog Future Perfect. A good story to start with: Recycled, Upcycled: Remade. “Is it possible to make an upcycled mobile phone entirely from recycled materials… that consumers will want to buy?”
My last weekend in Guatemala before heading back to the States, I went on a mini TecoTour to La Florida with Carlos Poza (tour leader) and 8 very cool volunteers. La Florida is one of our newest community partners as well as a favorite place of many of our interns. It’s a three hour jaunt from Xela to Colomba with the last hour and a half following a windy cobblestone road past coffee fincas, bamboo, jungles and waterfalls. The finca currently grows cash crops such as coffee, cacao and macadamia. They also plant corn, tomatoes and various fruits and as well as raise sheep, pigs, cows and bees. Their honey is excellent.
Don Lencho
Saturday evening of the tour, Don Lorenzo sat us down and told us the story of SCIDECO (Sociedad Civil Para el Desarollo de Colomba - Civil Society for the Development of Colomba), the cooperative that owns La Florida. The following is a mixture of the story he relayed to us that night, supplemented with additional information from Chris Michael and Prensa Libre.
The struggle during the war years
SCIDECO’s initial struggle began with an attempt to organize finca workers operating in the Colomba area. In early 1982, La Organisacion Campesino por Tierra (the Peasant Association for Land), as they were called then, was created to unionize campesinos and obtain better treatment and wages on plantations. During this time period, the normal daily wage for plantation workers was about 25 Quetzales for men and 12Q for women. Finca owners often didn’t pay as promised; exploitation and sexual abuse of female workers were not uncommon.
In 1982, Guatemala was 22 years into its brutal 36-year civil war. It was a dangerous time to form a union, as any attempt by laborers to organize could be interpreted as guerrilla activity, which was often punishable by swift a execution.
Over the next several years and as the union grew in size and strength, the membership decided that they wanted to own a finca of their own and attempted to purchase the nearby La Esmeralda. Despite the help and support of the local Catholic church, these early plans failed. The union lacked the necessary capital and wasn’t officially registered with the Guatemalan government. In addition, the primary government program designed to help campesinos obtain land, INTA (Instituto Nacional de Transformación Agraria - National Institute for Agrarian Transformation), was underfunded. In 1990, SCIDECO was officially born and restarted the long process of trying to buy land.
Here is where things started to get really difficult for SCIDECO’s members. Some were indeed accused by finqueros (finca owners) of being guerrillas fighters or communists; others where fired from their jobs on other plantations and blacklisted. Many members fled, going to Xela, Palmera, Mercedes, San Juan, Pensamiento, etc. etc. But still they planned.
In 1996, the Peace Accords were signed and the war was over. The UN-backed accords called for many reforms, including agrarian land reform and resettlement of displaced persons. With help from USAID, the Guatemalan government budgeted $9,000,000 for the Land Fund (Fondo de Tierra), which was to replace INTA. Around this time, international coffee prices tanked hitting records lows. Many finqueros had to abandon their farms. Some cut wages. Some of the more unscrupulous types stopped paying their laborers altogether.
The war is over, but a new fight looms
In 2000, Rafael Monson, the owner of La Florida, was having financial problems. He couldn’t pay his mortgage. Bancafe put a lien on the property and later reclaimed it. October 11, 2002, the 50 families in SCIDECO decided to peacefully occupy the abandoned plantation. After over a decade of negotiations with the government, they felt this was the only way.
According to the farm’s records, there had been 200 plus families living on the farm; only 34 remained after bankruptcy proceedings. SCIDECO asked some of these families if they wanted to join in the occupation. Most refused. They were afraid. There had never been any successful attempts in the area before. Police and hired guns were given license to crack heads and in some communities campesinos had been killed. For more than two years SCIDECO members lived in ramshackle houses on La Florida and in constant fear.
Seven months into the occupation another group, El Esfuerzo [the Effort], laid claim to sections of la Florida. The plantation, itself, was 47 acres, with more than enough land to accommodate both groups. In fact with only 50 families, it would have been very difficult for SCIDECO to farm/operate the entire property. So they formed a commission and asked El Esfuerzo if they wanted to join forces with them. No dice. So it was decided that they should fight separately and whoever got a loan from the government first, could keep the property. SCIDECO tried to negotiate with Bancafe and MAGA, but with two groups vying for the same land, the bank and government were having none of it. Their response was essentially ‘work it out amongst yourselves; you both need to peacefully withdraw’. Feeling that they would never get the land, both sides left.
5 months later, however, in April 2005, La Florida was successfully purchased by SCIDECO through a government loan of 6.5 million Quetzales (USD $850,000). They have 8 years to pay off the debt and 0% interest. Huzzah!
Shortly after receiving title (the paperwork delivered in a grand fashion by the President Oscar Berger), another community group from San Marcos (Acaflor - Asociación Comunitaria Agraria Florida ) asked if they could get some of the land. Much of it wasn’t being used at the time because there weren’t enough families to work it. SCIDECO said sure, but (and there’s always a but) Acaflor members had to participate in the collective activities of the group. Depending on time of year and proximity to the harvest, the families at La Florida would work from 6 AM to 1 PM for the collective and after that they could work their own piece of land. This is not what Acaflor had it mind. They didn’t share SCIDECO’s vision of a community cooperative; they instead wanted to divide the property and own individual plots. For SCIDECO who had been struggling and striving together for 2 decades, this was non-negotiable. And in 2006, so began a longstanding, sometimes armed, conflict between the two community groups. Death and lynching threats sprouted.
Through negotiations mediated by the local Catholic church, the conflict has recently been resolved. This past March, SCIDECO agreed to sign away land to Acaflor if the government agreed to forgive their debt. It has been. They don’t owe a penny.
AIDG, XelaTeco and La Florida
AIDG and XelaTeco will be helping La Florida’s community meet their energy needs. SCIDECO has registered for a UNDP Grant that would allow them to upgrade their inefficient electrical distribution system and extend it to their homes. This is the same program that awarded Nueva Alianza funds for their hydro-electricity project.
At night, the families eat by candlelight. Here, Wilma feeds her parrot Tomas.
We have installed a biodigester as an outreach project for the community that will provide gas for the communal kitchen. The system will not only generate fuel, but also offers a sanitation remediation solution. Lacking other options previously, they had had to dispose of animal waste in the nearby river.
Several SCIDECO families are also interested in obtaining rocket box stoves as they find the smoke from traditional cookstoves and wood fires to be irritating to their eyes and lungs. They are currently talking with XelaTeco about financing options.
Rosalinda and Josefina testing the rocket box stove in the community kitchen.
Josefina’s son Sergio David with TecoTour volunteer Jose.
When we first started in Guatemala with XelaTeco, we had the bold plan of manufacturing windmills based on Hugh Piggott’s design from OtherPower.com. We soon discovered that an essential component, permanent magnets, where difficult to obtain in country and that the cost of the windmill tower, battery bank, inverters, etc. were prohibitively expensive for the populations we wanted to serve. The size turbine we were considering would have been too expensive for a family and insufficient power for a community. So for a time we had to put aside our dreams of harnessing the power of wind.
In spring 2007, we teamed up with the San Francisco chapter of Engineers Without Borders to develop a low cost windmill as part of our Project Placement Program. The goal was to provide low cost (under $100) renewable electricity for LED lighting, cell phone charging, or small radio use, etc. The idea is to beat the price of a small (less than 3 watt) photovoltaic solar panel system. The initial inspiration for the project was a design developed by Ed Lenz made with coffee cans.
Just this last week, members from EWB-SF’s Appropriate Technology Design Team,Heather Fleming, Tyler Valiquette and Jesse Wodin, came to Guatemala to build a prototype of their vertical axis design.
Simple vertical axis wind turbine prototype. Wind is captured by the fabric blades which turn the steel axis.
Duration: 1min 7sec
Tyler Valiquette gives a brief description of the system.
Bicycle Gear affixed to the bottom of the shaft
The gears turn a small motor to generate electricity. Much work remains to be done in perfecting the motor and the electronics.
Heather Fleming and Jesse Wodin relax after a long week of prototyping.
Stay Tuned for more information on other designers/engineers participating in our Project Placement Program in Guatemala.
Blog 
The changing of the Junta Directiva in the Parque Central
Women outside an electric-powered mill in Chel
Intern Alex Surasky-Ysasi testing stream flow
