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.
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.
I'd like to invite you to AIDG's Annual Meeting occurring this Sunday, May 3, 2009 from 5-7PM!
Come find out what your help has allowed us to do in the first part of 2009. If you weren't able to make our holiday party in December, you don't want to miss this.
AIDG founder, Peter Haas, will give you a lively rundown of our programs in Haiti and Guatemala. On the Haiti front, we have the results from Konkou Biznis Ayiti, our very first business plan competition to commercialize biogas in Northern Haiti. From the 16 teams that entered, we have our winner. Find out how they plan to convert waste into a clean burning fuel and fertilizer this Sunday.
Our Guatemala program is currently undergoing a radical transformation. We are completely upgrading our R&D facility so that we can better design technologies that meet the needs of underserved communities. These changes will also allow us to collaborate with more university groups and businesses that share our mission.
The AIDG team in Guatemala is preparing for a 2nd business plan competition to take place this fall. The focus will be water, energy, and sanitation technologies.
So come join us on Sunday. Let us show you some of what we've been able to achieve with your dedicated support.
Keeping it Green,
Cat Laine
Details
Location: Weston Community Center, 20 Alphabet Lane, Weston, MA 02493 Date: Sunday, May 3rd Time: 5PM - 7PM
Light refreshments will be served.
Snapshots from the field
The 5 finalist teams for AIDG's biogas business plan competition, Konkou Biznis Ayiti. Over the course of one week, these teams went through an intensive series of training sessions to help them refine their business concept. We'll be announcing the contest winner at the end of the week.
SakisDecossard of Own Energy, Peter Haas and Catherine Laine of AIDG after all long day's training session with the contest's finalists. I want to give a special thanks to Sakis, who traveled down to Haiti from NYC to serve as one of our judges in the competition.
The new AIDG compound: 3 story office and training space. Not shown: intern housing, garden, storage and workshop space.
AIDG Guatemala and a visiting mechanical engineering team from Michigan State University. The university team was working on a novel idea for solar refrigeration. Their ultimate aim is to improve vaccine delivery in areas with poor access to electricity and modern refrigeration technologies.
Jeb Gutelius and AIDG Board Member Benny Lee on a site visit to La Fe in Guatemala. In 2007, XelaTeco repaired La Fe's 75 kW hydroelectric plant that serves the community and powers their agricultural machinery. The transmission lines to the right of the power house (seen above) were installed by XelaTeco this year as Phase II of the project. Phase III will be further improvement and expansion of the minigrid to homes of the community's 100 families.
I wanted to invite you to join me and the rest of the AIDG team for food, drinks and conversation at our 4th Annual Holiday Party. It's time to celebrate the good works that you helped make happen. As an added bonus, two of our teammates based in Guatemala will be in town for the festivities. Don't miss the chance to meet the crew. Click here to RSVP online.
Can’t wait to see you.
Warm Regards,
Cat Laine
Who: The AIDG team and you
What: Our way of saying thanks to the people who make our work possible
When: Sunday December 14, 2008 4 - 7 pm
Where: AIDG's Office at Encuentro5
33 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02111 (Chinatown)
Why: Because fighting against poverty and for environmental sustainability is a team effort. We couldn’;t do it without you.
To save cash and trees, we're doing mainly online invites this year instead of our normal paper ones. Please pass this message on to any friends you think might be interested. The more, the merrier!!!
If you want to volunteer at the event (you know you want to!), email me at claine@aidg.org. That goes double, if you have questions or problems RSVP’ing.
AIDG starts small businesses in Haiti and Guatemala to help underserved communities get affordable renewable energy, sanitation and clean water.
* FYI: the bird on the invite is the quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, and the namesake for the town we’re based in, Quetzaltenango.
What was your intern project?
Outreach and Facilitation Officer, with direct participation in the Ram Pump Group, Water Group, Micro-hydroelectric Group, and Biodigestor Group.
Describe what your normal day as an AIDG intern in like.
My normal day as an AIDG Outreach intern starts off with an early morning ride to a remote community for a follow-up or initial assessment visit. The scenery on the way to any given community is without a doubt the most mystifying experience one can have in a country covered in majestic mountains and endless valleys. Upon arriving to the community, I am greeted by cheery women in traje tipico and men armed with field machetes. They instinctively take me to their central building where we discuss the nature of my visit and their needs and expectations. Accompanied by the AIDG site surveyor Dave, we then take a tour of the community’s terrain, reviewing the potential landmarks where technologies could be adequately installed. By the time we have finished hiking down extremely steep cliffs to get to the river, feeling as though we have survived an episode of ‘Extreme Adventures’, a nice steamy lunch is awaiting us back in a local woman’s home. A pile of tortillas are accompanied by a delicious bowl of black beans and drum sticks with red tomato sauce.
After a lunch filled with discussion about where we are from and what activities the community does, a meeting with all community members is called, so as to discuss the objectives of a possible project that could be executed in the future.
The patio where we had been first taken for introductions now becomes a classroom dynamic, with Dave and I at the head of the class, explaining the project. The faces of these 30 men, women and children light up with excitement and with the efforts of understanding our explanation. Questions and concerns are raised directly from the attentive listeners as we get into the details that they want to address. When this meeting is adjourned, Dave and I say our lengthy goodbyes and are on our way back to Xela on his motorbike. The next day will give me the opportunity to write up the details of the previous day’s thrilling visit.
What has been a crucial moment in which you have felt that AIDG is truly succeeding?
I went with Maricela Chan, XelaTeco’s Administrator, to a workshop at a Woman’s Association called Pop Atziak, in Quetzaltenango. On behalf of promoting XelaTeco’s most popular product, efficient stoves, Maricela and I took a stove to the Association as a demonstration so that the women could test it out for themselves. The presentation that Maricela gave, as well as the way she encouraged the woman to use the stove to boil water, was engaging and informative. I was truly impressed with the way she presented XelaTeco and the results she had from the members at the workshop. Most women were interested in purchasing the stoves and some were able to. XelaTeco’s ability to reach out to its audience and inform them so eloquently about the benefits of their products in relation to the environment, health care, and the money they will save shows me that they are able to go forward in sustaining their own business.
What has been the most rewarding moment for you?
The most rewarding moment for me was when I was with Dave in a community near El Tumbador, called Plan de Arena, on a site visit where we wanted to identify their potential to be the host of a micro-hydroelectric system. After determining that the river they had was adequate for this project, we told them that it would be good to have a letter of interest and involvement from them, confirming their motivation to take part.
Without another thought, the community leader, Don Ovidio, sat with Dave and I, took out his typewriter, and began typing the letter. When the letter was completed, the community members came to sign it one by one. The ones that could not write left their fingerprint on the paper. Their contribution to our visit felt fulfilling and priceless.
Who have you met who has inspired you the most and why?
The team is measuring the river’s flow to determine the potential for a
micro-hidroelectric system. Pictured: Dave Goosen , Don Carlos Cano (Community representative), and Jose Guzman (Ana Cafe)
The group of people who have inspired me the most are the members of Comunidad Nuevo Eden in San Marcos. The sixteen families in this community had until recently been refugees, having fled to Chiapas, Mexico to escape violence during the Guatemalan Civil War. They returned to Guatemala by choice after ten years with the help of the government. Many of the families that fled with them, however, preferred to stay in Mexico. Upon their return, they took to repairing and utilizing a coffee beneficiary and began working the dryers and other machinery. They also cultivate macadamia nuts.
What is most astounding about this group of individuals is how extremely well organized and interconnected they are. We came for a site visit because they were interested in a micro-hydroelectric system that would let them take advantage of the three rivers that run up to their community. The reason Neuvo Eden doesn’t have electricity like some of their neighboring communities is because at only sixteen families, their community is too small to qualify to receive power from the main supplier DEOXA.
Household members spoke to us about what motivated their desire to generate their own electricity. It almost always came down to one main objective: to have light so that their children could study at night and not have their eyes damaged by the dimness of candlelight which they currently use. In Nuevo Eden, not only do all the children attend the primary school located in the community, but families in neighboring communities also send their children there.
This community’s value of education and their children’s need to stay awake studying inspires me to help them gain the tools needed to create a better future for themselves.
Why did you choose AIDG?
I chose AIDG because its direction and presence in the NGO world is so unique and exiciting. While searching for jobs, I began learning more about the organization and was immediately inspired by its method of ensuring sustainability by incubating businesses administered by nationals of a country. AIDG’s solution to the challenges that the developing world faces through the development of technologies that take advantage of natural resources is a promising goal that I am so happy to be a part of.
The challenge they set speakers at the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) is to tell a story, specifically a personal story. Not your standard spiel. Not your normal pitch. So here’s my narrative. It combines Greek myth and a little Diana Ross to talk about the need for R&D and business development for poverty alleviation. It’s from the heart. It’s how we hope our work can impact the world.
If you like what you see in the vid, please pass on the link to friends/reblog this post/stumble it/etc. We need all the help we can get.
Note: a few flubbed lines.
Shada has 20,000 to 25,000 people living within a square mile not 20 to 25.
The corn sheller was made in Malawi. Amy Smith let us borrow it.
I know, I know. I need to retake intro physics. In talking about Galloping Gertie, I totally misuse the term energy where I mean force.
Photos of the Pelton turbine and ballast load controllers were taken by Xeni Jardin.
In their second generation prototype, they have managed to increase efficiency as well as reduce noise, cleaning time and the cost of production compared to the initial version developed by researchers at the University of Hohenheim. The protos team is now prepping for large-scale production.
Duration: 7 min 9 sec
Job creation and the Protos
The protos technology was designed not only to provide people living in poor households with an alternative to wood, fire or charcoal as a cooking fuel, but also so that local job creation was part of the entire value chain. This applies to plant oil as well as the stove itself. As BSH introduces the second-generation protos cooker, we also remain committed to local production. To this end, the protos team is currently taking steps to establish local manufacturing capacity with a partner in Indonesia.
Everything but the burner, which requires some sophisticated tech, can be produced locally.
Early tests with 100 Filipino families (late 2004-2006) have attested to the commercial viability of the stove. In April 2006, the German company introduced protos to a broader swath of the public on the Leyte and Samar Islands in the Philippines. 500+ people have purchased the stove and “the local manufacturer now has the capacity to deliver up to 1500 units per year to the original local islands”. When Pete was recently in Austria, he met the head of Siemens Home Appliances division. They are working very hard to find partners and expand the availability of the stove to other developing countries.
Protos Base Specs
Power Range: 2-2.5 kW Efficiency: 45-55% (similar to an LPG stove) Fuel Type: plant and vegetable oils (e.g. jatropha, cocnut, cotton seed, castor, used oils, etc.) Emissions: approx. ten times lower than a high quality kerosene stove CO2 balance: neutral
Similar to a camping stove, Protos consists of a tank, a pump, a frame, a valve, a fuel line, and a burner. But all the materials are designed to meet the high temperatures the burner maintains—up to 1,400 °C—to ensure continuous vaporization and combustion with minimal emissions and soot formation. With Protos, the company hopes to replace traditional three-stone fireplaces, reduce carcinogenic emissions, prevent deforestation, and provide a cheaper means of preparing food in developing countries.
“In Darfur, some 2.2 million refugees cook their meals over inefficient wood fires in camps, with plenty of risks to refuel off-site. There’s nothing high-tech about this stove, but it slashes the time refugees need to spend in heightened danger.
In spring 2008, AIDG and Xelateco began contracts with Humdinger Wind Energy LLC to scale up its Windbelt system from tabletop size to tower size. As you may recall, the Congrats to Shawn Frayne, One of Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award Winners. The Windbelt won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award last year. The system stands poised to become a prolific cheap option for small scale rural electrification.
While Xelateco was responsible for the tower and mechanical systems design, AIDG took on the software and electrical systems.
Jordon McRae, Santos Pelechu (XelaTeco), Kurt Kornbluth, Shawn Frayne, Jose Ordonez (AIDG), Werny Lopez (XelaTeco)
The custom data logging electronics and software designed by AIDG record wind speed, angle of attack to the belt, and a number of other characteristics important to our research.
Information is available as a log or in real time via the internet. Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and screen control, team members can interact with the tower data collection system from Guatemala, Boston, or Hong Kong.
Part of Data Collection Setup
The integration includes a custom Skype interface that provides a simple way to determine system status. A user can skype “weather status”, “electrical status” or a host of other commands to the tower and find out whether a system visit or data investigation is in order.
The system can also alert users to significant data events such as wind or power spikes, storage space alarms, etc.
AIDG is adapting this system to handle multiple types of logging environments and is cleaning the code for an initial open source release for use by other groups this fall.
Mock data from tower, available over the internet and through Skype
This tool can be used by students and researchers alike. AIDG, in informal surveys, has found a strong desire among researchers for remote communications with lab and research equipment through simple interfaces like Skype.
Don Prudencio Lopez passed away August 23rd 2008 after a long bout of illness.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of welding either as an beginner, artisan or expert, you know its more an art than a science to manipulate the rod and puddle just right, to not burn through the metal, to create that perfect bead that will hold strength. Don Prudencio Lopez was a master craftsman who as Pete would say enviously, “made some beautiful welds”.
We first met Don Prudencio in fall 2005 when we came to Guatemala to launch XelaTeco. At 72, he was teaching young students metalwork at Escuela Taller Agaton Boj in Quetzaltenango and was the primary mentor for Candido Morales, who later became the youngest member of XelaTeco at 16.
Over the years that followed, his handiwork was evident in the improved stoves that are helping keep smoke from families homes’, the micro-hydro system penstock and turbines that are providing electricity to Neuva Alianza, and in much of metalwork that XelaTeco has done since its inception. It lives on is the work of his previous apprentice, Candido.
Over the past year, Don Prudencio had been forced to slow things down. He had been struggling with heart disease. Despite an operation last year and a good long fight, he succombed to illness and died last month. He is survived by his 16 year old daughter, Delmy. He will be missed.
Don Prudencio, letting sparks fly.
Don Prudencio with Candido Morales working on the Pelton turbine casing.
Don Pru and the hydro system manifold. Photo by Lisa Silberstein
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