This past February, AIDG gave Haitian solar start-up, ENERSA, a $15,000 emergency loan to help it rebuild its factory damaged in the January 12 earthquake that rocked the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
Duration: 2 minutes 14 seconds
Before the quake struck, Enersa was the fastest growing solar company in Haiti, with contracts in all 10 departments and installations in 58 cities and remote villages. The 2 and a half year old company is the brainchild of Haitian born Jean Ronel Noël and Alex Georges who met in graduate school in Montreal while pursuing degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration. In 2000, the two decided they needed to return to Haiti to start a business that could create positive change in their home country.
Enersa’s product line includes solar street lighting, residential and commercial solar systems, and solar chargers for smaller devices like cell phones and lamps. They initially settled on LED streetlights as a flagship product after seeing Japanese company Nichia’s white LEDs in action on Montreal’s streets. The big question for them at the time was what would they use as an energy source if they wanted to port this technology to Haiti. Haiti’s electricity infrastructure was notoriously unreliable in urban zones and nonexistent in rural areas. However, the country’s location in the sun-drenched tropics and the relatively modest energy requirements of LED systems made solar an attractive option for the Enersa team, if a suitable price point could be reached.
In steps Richard Comp of Maine Solar and Skyheat who would come to be Noel and Georges’ mentor. He introduced the team to methods of solar fabrication including inexpensive ways of encapsulating PV cells. Through Skyheat, Comp has trained teams in Mali, Nicaragua, Haiti and Peru in small-scale solar panel manufacturing.
AIDG first learned about Enersa when our Executive Director, Peter Haas met Noel and Georges at the Inter-American Development Bank Haiti Business forum in Port-au-Prince last September.
“I was immediately impressed by [Noel] an engineer who taught himself the electrical engineering he was missing by using the free online engineering resources of MIT Opencourseware from Port Au Prince,” says Haas. “Also, after seeing the dramatic bootstrapping JR and Alex had done in starting their business, it was clear this team was different.”
My interaction with JR last week during a tour of the damaged Enersa facility reinforced that impression. Though the factory had sustained much damage — several collapsed interior and exterior walls, JR was optimistic about the company’s outlook. With the help of our emergency funding and some smart maneuvering, he expected to be back in production in a few short weeks. Enersa was lucky in that all their employees were safely accounted for and little of their inventory was damaged. Their latest shipment of solar cells had been safe in Miami at the time of the disaster.
In our chat, Noël stressed the importance of creating jobs in Haiti. He believes that for Haiti to flourish, enjoy sustained growth and ultimately transition into a developed nation, businesses need to create local employment opportunities. So rather than simply importing completed panels and lights, Enersa imports the basic building blocks and employs local youth for production and installation. In their solar streetlights for example, the small panel, LED lights and towers are all made in Haiti. The company’s 18 fully qualified solar technicians, all capable of installing solar streetlights and photovoltaic home systems, are from Port-au-Prince largest shantytown, Cité Soleil. An added benefit of local production, Noel added, is that their completed panels are also 25% cheaper. Double win.
Enersa’s client focus for the near future will be NGOs and private companies in Haiti who need reliable access to electricity and want to support a socially responsible local business.
To contact Enersa, please email enersahaiti {at] gmail (dot}com.
Tens of thousands of people from nearly every nation on earth have descended on Copenhagen this month for the UN climate summit. As the delegates try to piece together a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they’re also absorbing lessons from one of the world’s leading cities in sustainable transportation. In Copenhagen, fully 37 percent of commute trips are made by bike, and mode share among city residents alone is even higher.
Come see “the busiest bicycling street in the Western world”, and lots of other you-gotta-see-them-to-believe-them features including bike counters (featuring digital readouts), LEDS, double bike lanes (for passing) and giant hot pink cars.
Catapult Design is working with AIDG and the [Appropriate Technology Design Team] to design an affordable wind-powered generator capable of producing enough electricity to charge a cell phone, power a radio, or operate LED lights for nighttime use. The generator is intended for rural, off-the-grid communities without electricity. Catapult Design’s product, a pico vertical-axis wind turbine, is designed to operate in low wind speeds while charging a
12v car battery – this battery will in turn power small electrical devices.
Duration: 20 sec
The setup and control station down at the NASA-Ames Research Facility wind tunnels in Mountain View, home for our wind turbine blade testing.
William Kamkwamba, from Malawi, is a born inventor. When he was 14, he built an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap, working from rough plans he found in a library book called Using Energy and modifying them to fit his needs. The windmill he built powers four lights and two radios in his family home.
My favorite thing about William’s story and this interview with John Stewart is that it provides a storybook example of how access to information either through your local library or through the internet can be life-changing. William’s current path started because he picked up a book and did what so many autodidacts and tinkerers do. He started to make things. He’s on his way to Dartmouth next year through a series of serendipitous internet events. Blogger Mike McMay (Hacktivate) read about him in a local Malawian newspaper. After reading Mike’s writeup, Emeka Okafor (Timbuktu Chronicles blogger and AIDG advisory board member) “spent several weeks tracking him down at his home in Masitala Village, Wimbe, and invited him to attend TEDGlobal on a fellowship”.
Following Kamkwamba’s moving talk, there was an outpouring of support for him and his promising work. Members of the TED community got together to help him improve his power system (by incorporating solar energy), and further his education through school and mentorships.
After his ‘discovery’, William gets into the African Leadership Academy, a prep school in Johannesburg founded by fellow Echoing Green alums, Chris Bradford and Fred Swaniker. Somehow with all these changes going on, he also manages to write a book, The Boy who Harnessed the Wind with Bryan Mealer.
Yup, all this because of a simple trip to the library. It makes me feel rather nostalgic for Levar Burton and the Reading Rainbow. All that books can transport you stuff.
Because I imagine that the theme song is currently playing in your brain, here are the lyrics just in case that little voice inside your head forgot the words ;).
Reading Rainbow Theme Song
Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It’s in a book
A Reading Rainbow
I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow
I can be anything
Take a look
It’s in a book
A Reading Rainbow
A Reading Rainbow
Pop the name of a book that changed your life in the comments. Mine are the Rand McNally atlas and basic science books that my mom got me as a kid. They kicked off my love of science and learning.
The non-profit TED has selected AIDG’s Executive Director Peter Haas as one of 20 inaugural Senior Fellows. The TED Senior Fellows program is designed to bring together young world-changers and trailblazers from the arts, science, entrepreneurship, the NGO sector and education. As part of its commitment to TED, AIDG will be launching an exciting new initiative in our technology research and development program in 2010 that will transform our ability to do research with local and university partners. We’ll be able to share more details next year.
Two of our favorite bloggers Erik Hersman (Co-founder of Ushahidi.com; blogger, AfriGadget and White African) and Juliana Rotich (Co-founder, Ushahidi.com; blogger, Afromusing and Global Voices) are also 2010 senior Fellows.
Erik Hersman of Afrigadget documents low-tech entrepreneurialism in Africa. Specifically he looks at ingenuity born of necessity, “tech that keeps economies on life support”. Raised in Sudan (until the war got bad), Kenya, and then again Sudan, he’s a bit of a tech anthropologist searching for Africans solutions to African problems.
From wikipedia
Ushahidi (Kiswahili for “testimony” or “witness”) was a website created in the aftermath of Kenya’s disputed 2007 presidential election that collected eyewitness reports of violence sent in by email and text-message and placed them on a Google map. It is also the name of the open source software developed for that site, which has since been improved, released freely, and used for a number of similar projects.
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The software has since been used to track violence in Congo and pharmacy stockouts in Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi, and monitor elections in Mexico and India, among other projects. It was also used by Al Jazeera to collect eyewitness reports during the 2008-2009 Gaza War.
In addition to Pete, Eric and Juliana, here are the 17 other fellows:
Taghi Amirani (Iran/UK) - Documentary filmmaker, Amirani Films
Rachel Armstrong (UK) - Teaching fellow, The Bartlett School of Architecture; physician; science-fiction author
Frederick Balagadde (Uganda/US) - Research scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; co-inventor of the microchemostat, a medical diagnostic chip
April Karen Baptiste (Trinidad) - Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Colgate University
AIDG biodigester intern, Christopher Salam, talks about his work with us in 2009. Chris has been assisting on biogas field visits, building and managing the demo biodigester installations at AIDG’s Guatemala office and testing biodigester effluent enrichment through vermicomposting.
AIDG Micro-Hydroelectric Intern Will Stone talks about his work with us in Guatemala. Will assisted in the upgrade of a Pelton Turbine at the Nueva Alianza community and designed a Mitchell Banki Turbine for use at the Corazon del Bosque ecopark.
After months of competition, over 30 hours of business development training, and endless hours of practicing business pitches on October 24, 2009 six talented teams presented their business plan proposals in the final phase of AIDG’s business plan competition: GuateVerde 2009.
Needless to say, with such strong competitors and outstanding presentations, choosing a winner was not easy but it is with great pleasure that AIDG announces this year’s GuateVerde winner, Quetsol.
Quetsol is a new business that will provide high efficiency, low cost solar technologies that aim to increase access to basic illumination, electricity generation, and water pumping in Guatemala. Their mission is to help their clients save money and improve their quality of life through the use of appropriate technology.
Who are Quetsol?
Quetsol’s Director of Technology and Finance, Manuel Aguilar, holds a Master’s Degree in astrophysics and a Bachelor’s Degree in astrophysics and physics from Harvard University. His work experience includes founding and managing a global-macro hedge fund, working as a quantitative analyst for a private equity group, as well as significant astrophysics research.
Director of Marketing and Sales Juan Rodriguez has a Business Administration degree from the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City with an emphasis in finance and marketing. For the past four years, he had worked as a marketing manager for Proctor & Gamble Interamericas and formally owned and managed his own advertising agency.
The third member of the Quetsol team is Matthew King, their Director of Logistics and Operations. Mr. King is a recent graduate of Harvard University with a Bachelor’s degree in the Comparative Study of Religion. His studies have also taken him to Cuba, via the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and Japan. His work experience includes solar photovoltaic and biodigestor installations in Nicaragua, appropriate infrastructure development advocacy in Brazil, and activism against deforestation in California.
Manuel Antonio Aguilar and Juan Fermín Rodríguez
Samples of Quetsol’s proposed product line
AIDG is greatly looking forward to working with this talented team and continuing in our mission to increase access to basic energy through local business support. Congratulations to Quetsol and thank you to all the staff, volunteers, reviewers, judges and supporters who made GuateVerde 2009 a huge success!
GuateVerde 2009 Judges: Ing. Saúl Santos, Dr. Dennis Rodas, Ruth Degolia, Peter Haas, Cat Lainé, Lic. Juan Molina
AIDG would also like to announce that in response to the current dire situation at LakeAtitlan, we will be making a special investment in another GuateVerde team that is helping address the issue and support the communities most effected. Lake Atitlan, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Guatemala, has suffered from a harmful cyanobacterial bloom in the second half of 2009. The blue-green algae has spread across the surface of the lake covering it in a thick green scum. Local news reports cite sewage, agricultural runoff, and erosion related to deforestation as causes of the bloom.
Duration: 2 min 44 sec
The lake as it should be. Photo by Deborah Coleman
Flowercin/Altec, a team based out of Solola, will be working with the local municipality at the Lake to collect organic material (trash) and convert it into nutrient-rich and affordable organic fertilizer. Flowecin’s business was previously recognized in Technoserve’s Idea Tu Empresa competition in 2007.
We at AIDG love Lake Atitlan and hope that through Flowercin/Altec we can help in the effort to improve the conditions of the lake and all who rely on its health.
