Posts by Anna Young
December 19, 2010
In January 2010, the solar autoclave was recognized by the WHO’s Call for Innovative Technologies. This competition sought to identify accessible and affordable technologies that were developed to address health problems and improve the quality of life for individuals in low-income and developing countries.
In September, the World Health Organization hosted their First Global Forum on Medical Devices in Bangkok, Thailand. Conference participants included winners from the Call for Innovative Technologies, policy makers, researchers, and clinicians. I had the chance to attend this event on behalf of Salud del Sol, Inc.; Innovations in International Health at MIT; and the solar autoclave research team. It was an incredible conference to be a part of and an honor for the solar autoclave to be recognized among such creative technologies as the remote anemia monitoring system from Biosense and Mark Zimmerman from Nepal, who is developing a simplified anesthesia unit for remote settings.
Read more
June 17, 2010
In 2004, Aceh, Indonesia was the site of one of the most devastating tsunamis which took the lives of 230,000 inhabitants. Five years later…during December 2009, I had the opportunity to experience how this developing economy is struggling to recover from the natural disaster and the indestructible will of the local population to thrive in their homeland. For two weeks, I participated in a Young Leaders Program sponsored by the Hong Kong-based think tank, the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT). I was among a group of 18 academics, corporate employees and NGO workers from Malaysia, China, Thailand, Australia and India learning about and experiencing the international business environment of Asia and the application of social enterprises.
The program began in Hong Kong with a week of MBA-style classes. My time in Hong Kong was quite similar to how I envisioned learning about Islamic banking and the entrepreneurial environment in Asia. We had a special lecture given by Hugh Evans who leads the UNDP’s (United Nations Development Programme) APED (Aceh Program for Economic Development) on the complex ecosystem of aid in Aceh and how market opportunities can enhance the aid that is given in Indonesia.
Three flights later, our team headed to Aceh, Indonesia to apply what we had learned in the classroom to the cocoa industry. Through a series of interviews with local farmers, government officials, and NGO leaders, we learned that there was a substantial market opportunity in a global demand for cocoa that could be aligned with poorly equipped local farmers who lack bargaining power in cocoa prices and access to local markets. The rugged SUVs which brought us from the cocoa farms to the centralized collection centers brought to reality the transportation constraints of the famers in Aceh and why they are disconnected from the market. To address this, we researched a business plan for an enterprise which would connect cocoa farmers to the market. The core goal of the business plan was to increase the quality of cocoa beans being produced and harvested by the farmers, empowering the farmers to move up the supply chain through various solar technologies that can be used in the drying process and in turn, directly connect the farmers to international cocoa exporters to allow them to realize a majority of the profit.
Here’s a quick picture of the current cocoa drying process in Aceh:
- Farmer grabs bucket of cocoa pods from the field behind his house.
- 4 hours later, the pods are shed and the cocoa beans are exposed.
- The cocoa beans are required to dry for 1 day before the fermentation process begins. Ideally, this is done inside of a processing facility. However, in Aceh, farmers do not have access to such technology and instead lay the cocoa beans outside on a tarp usually in the same vicinity as the chickens or next to the road.
- At the convenience of the collector, the cocoa beans are collected from the farmers for a price dictated by the collector—the price decreases based on quality of bean and if they have not been dried long enough.
- The cocoa beans are brought to a processing facility where they spend 8-10 days in the fermentation and drying process.
- These dried beans are then sold from the collector to an international exporter at a price determined by LIBO (what is this?).
Due to a lack of transparency in the system and a lack of appropriate tools at the farmer level, the farmers in Aceh rarely see any of the premiums received by the collectors for the cocoa beans. How can we change that? As part of the supply chain and operations team, we explored:
- Simple technology and agricultural techniques that can be implemented at the farmer level to produce high quality cocoa beans and increase production.
- Distributed processing centers equipped with solar driers for low operating cost, to be used by a group of 15-20 farmers.
After 6 days of developing a business plan, we presented the opportunity at an Investors Conference in Medan, Indonesia, where cocoa collectors, exporters and NGO leaders were present. I came back from Indonesia with an incredible experience of working in multi-cultural teams, a new appreciation for M&Ms, and plenty of ideas for how simple solar technologies can support cocoa farmers!
June 16, 2010
Grupo Fenix offers hands-on courses, workshops and service trips for individuals interested in broadening their knowledge of renewable energy and sustainable development. Stay in a rural village in Nicaragua while working side-by-side local community members as they teach you about practical solar energy technologies such as solar cookers and photovoltaic systems. The July Solar Culture Course is now available for registration and includes the building of a solar cooker oven, a solar battery charger, and the installation of a PV system within the local community. Course fee is $750 and includes all expenses after arrival in Nicaragua. For more information email thegrupofenix@gmail.com.
June 16, 2010
Come spend a month volunteering in northern rural Nicaragua in the community of Totogalpa in a reforestation bridage hosted by Grupo Fenix and Las Mercedes. Live with the local rural families, assist the community in reforestation projects, all while learning about their Solar Culture. We have 2000 trees ready to plant, each pine can provide enough oxygen for two people. Volunteers will also get the chance to learn local artisan crafts, traditional folklorico dances, enjoy hiking, and a visit to the beautiful Somoto Canyon. Volunteer fees are $500 + a $50 registration fee and include all expenses except for flight, for more information and to register, email thegrupofenix at gmail dot com.
June 7, 2010
The Solar Women of Totogalpa are well on their way to creating a Solar Campus in their community of Sabana Grande de Totogalpa Nicaragua. First constructing a community center that acts as a hosting site for activities, a workshop for solar cooker construction and an office for Grupo Fenix on-site staff members. The next step in their entrepreneurial endeavors is building a Solar Restaurant where the women will be able to sell some of the delicious meals made from the solar cookers. This past May, Robert Esposito of Community 3P had a chance to visit the community and take part in the incredible construction efforts for creating 7,000 bricks to make the solar restaurant a reality! Below is an excerpt from his blog:
This restaurant required seven thousand of these bricks and after about an hour and a half we had moved just over one-hundred. As I shuttled the bricks from one pile to another, sweat pouring off me and my hands feeling quite raw, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe for the women who built that first centre. Adobe construction is one of the most physically demanding building projects, and The Solar Women of Totogalpa, small in stature but giants in determination, had worked to achieve a vision that even caught the attention of the United Nations, who declared the partnership with Groupo Fenix and their joint achievement as one of the most inspirational in the world.
Read the rest of Robert’s blog entry here: http://blog3p.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-solar-women-of-totogalpa-pt-2/
November 30, 2009
From November 30 – December 12, Salud del Sol’s Director of Development, Anna Young, will be participating in the Young Leaders Program of the Global Insitute For Tomorrow, an independent social venture think tank dedicated to advancing understanding of the impacts of globalization.
The Program begins with 4 days of classroom learning in Hong Kong, with participants from around the world, including Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, China and Belgium. Following these classes, participants will travel to Aceh, Indonesia to work in partnership with a local farmers cooperative and the UNDP to create a sustainable business plan for the cooperative.
It will be an incredible experience– check back for updates from Asia!
November 22, 2009
A Brief Overview of Concentrated Solar Power Technology
By Matt Pittinger
Two main types of solar power plants dominate the utility industry today, Photo voltaic power plants (PV) are large arrays of solar panels grouped together to produce electricity. These solar panels, very similar to panels you can put on your house, use light photons that react with a thin layer of silicon to excite electrons and produce electricity. Unfortunately, this technology is still rather expensive.
The technology many utility companies are now using is concentrated solar fields. This is a simpler, more cost effective option for solar power, and can even be more easily utilized in developing countries. Parabolic shaped solar concentrators are U shaped to catch, and reflect the sun into a single focal point. When these concentrators are aligned in a row, thousands of focal points create a line of concentrated solar energy. Placed exactly along this focal line is a tube receptor filled with fluid that is then heated to extremely high temperatures. This fluid can then be used by the power plant to create steam, and turn a turbine to produce electricity. A picture of a solar parabolic concentrator can be seen below.
Image 1: Parabolic Solar Concentrator (Photo from Greenterrafirma.com)
Recently there has been a new development in solar concentrating power using Fresnel lens technology. The Fresnel lens, first developed for light houses to cast a brighter beam of light, is now being used in place of parabolic concentrating troughs. By angling flat mirrors towards a single focal point, a similar focal line can be achieved. And, similar to the parabolic mirror, a receiver filled with fluid can then be heated and used to create steam. This steam then goes through the same turbine generator process to create electricity.
Image 2: Concentrated Solar Fresnel Array (Photo from csposi.org)
There are many benefits to this Solar Fresnel array over the traditional parabolic concentrator. Fresnel lens concentrated solar is much less expensive to build. They do not use the more expensive, curved mirrors to concentrate light. This is a very important aspect for Salud del Sol as a company because it is one of our main goals to promote projects that can be made in the regions that we serve. Parabolic reflectors drive up the cost of a concentrated solar project and they are not as prevalent in developing countries such as Nicaragua. Flat reflectors can be manufactured more easily and cost significantly less.
Another benefit to Fresnel technology over parabolic technology is the wind factor. Parabolic reflectors are larger and tend to catch the wind more easily. These wind gusts cause the focal point to shift, dropping the effectiveness of the solar concentration. A Fresnel array utilizes smaller mirrors which are typically closer to the ground and in turn catch less wind. Also, since the Fresnel mirrors are closer to the ground, they cast less of a shadow. With fewer shadows, concentrators can be put closer together and thus save space. If solar power concentrators interest you, there are many different resources online that can tell you more.
Some of my favorite sites are:
1. www.nrel.gov
2. www.solarbuzz.com
3. www.ases.org
Resources:
1. http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_csp.html
2. http://greenterrafirma.com/
3. www.csposi.com
4. www.solarbuzz.com
October 15, 2009
Solar Culture Course in Nicaragua,
hosted by Grupo Fenix
4 -14 January 2010
Come to Nicaragua and engage your head, heart, and hands in the real work of developing countries. Our hands-on courses allow you to be immersed in the daily life of rural Nicaraguans by living with host families and working alongside local community members to create their vision of a model community through renewable energy and sustainable practices.
Discuss the theory behind solar energy and the challenges of development with your instructors and other course participants. Spend your days learning how to construct solar cookers, photovoltaic panels, and installing photovoltaic systems. Laugh along with your host family as you try to recall your high school Spanish, balance water on your head or make tortillas. Most activities and classes are held in the new adobe Solar Center. Housing will be simple, like that of a typical rural Nicaraguan family.
Explore a beautiful country and its culture while learning about renewable energy and sustainable development in the field. Our courses provide a unique travel experience that is educational, rewarding, and fun!
This 11-day course, offered twice a year, has been held by Grupo Fenix since 1999. It is a great introduction to the science and use of appropriate renewable energy technologies such as solar cookers, dryers and photo-voltaic systems. Dr. Richard Komp, an expert from the United States with over 40 years experience working with solar technologies, teaches the technical classes for the January version of this course and the July version is based on his methodology for fabrication of PV panels in developing countries. During this 11 day course participants will:
- Visit Suni Solar, a renewable energy business in Managua started by Grupo Fenix
- Build a solar oven with the local women’s group, the Solar Women of Totogalpa
- Listen to talks on Solar Dryers and Medicinal Plants
- Learn about solar cooking and eat the final product of your class!
- Install a PV system with local solar experts
- Make a solar powered battery charger
Also, the course includes various tourist activities such as a visit to nearby beautiful spots in the mountains of northern Nicaragua. If weather permits, we will spend a day exploring the Somoto Canyon and swimming in its natural pools. Also, at the end of the course we will spend a night at a rustic ecolodge in the Tisey Nature Reserve, which has hiking trails, fields of organic vegetables, a farming community that produces its own specialty cheeses and one of the best panoramic views in the country.
The course fee of $995 includes all food and lodging, with a $50 deposit to be sent to the nonprofit Skyheat Associates at PO Box 184, Harrington ME 04643 before December 15th to insure a place in the course, which has a limit of 15 participants and is often completely full. For more information, please contact thegrupofenix@gmail.com or look on-line at www.grupofenix.org for details of all of our programs.
July 16, 2009
After a safe landing, a heat sensor check for swine flu, and the scavenger hunt for all of our luggage, Lauren and I were greeted by Douglas at the airport in Managua!! We traveled from the bustling city, through the varios neighborhoods, commercial areas, and arrived at Suni Solar just in time to eat papusas for dinner. The constant noise of the city brought back memories—children playing in the street until all hours of the night, cars honking, regatone music coming from all different directions, and the sound of mangos falling from the trees onto the corregated roof of the sisters house. It’s great to be back. Where else can you have mango pie for breakfast?
The quick bounce into Managua was followed the next morning with the fantastic four hour bus ride to Sabana Grande, Totogalpa. Along carreterra norte, the full streets of Managua quickly fall to the pace of the country. I’ve found that I remember Nicaragua but a lot of the smells across the country, the heat of Managua, the smell of burning trash in the country, smell of fried food, and the hot rain that comes consistently every single day.
It is amazing to revisit Sabana Grande another time. The Solar Center is located not directly on the Pan American highway, but relatively close. Its location en route from Managua to Ocotal is recognized by the majority of the bus drivers. Slowly but surely, the Solar Center and las Mujeres Solares are becoming a place of interest for many people, local and entranjeros (from outside of Nicaragua). The current focus of las Mujeres Solares is establishing a Solar Restaurant in the same area as the Solar Center. This will give the the women an opportunity to share their culinary skills and knowledge of solar cooking and renewable energy with others. The Solar Center, supported by las Mujeres Solares, the Solar Center staff and the network of volunteers and student researchers, is becoming a model community of the empowerment of renewable energy and entrepreneurship in a rural community.
The constant development of las Mujeres Solares is incredible. The SEED Award has allowed them to move forward with legalized status. In the near future, they will officially be established as a cooperative in Nicaragua! This particular form of organization aligns with many of the social norms of las Mujeres Solares and will balance their desire to become a sustainable business, with the social standard of working collectively to achieve their goals in unison.
It’s energizing to see the momentum and potential of las Mujeres Solares. Just as exciting was talking with the current Grupo Fenix volunteers who are supporting this work in Totogalpa and Managua. While all of the staff have different experiences and roles, and perspectives on the future of all of the organizations involved, they share the common desire to support and guide the work of the Solar Center. Sustainable development of a community requires somewhat of an exit strategy for the extranjeros involved. The current Grupo Fenix employees supporting Susan in her work have such a fantastic outlook on development work. I have been constantly impressed by the current Grupo Fenix employees, Cody, David, and Bruno who are managing the work; they are great partners for Salud del Sol, Inc. to be working alongside.
Cherling, is adorable, it’s amazing how much she has grown in one year! While Maria Antonia was working in the Solar Center for the afternoon, she came with and mosied through the garden, sat pensively among the staff, and waited quite patiently while her grandma was cleaning the garden. She also asked me if I knew who Hannah Montana was—ha. Marvin and Masiel were not at the house for the most part, which was sad because I loved spending time with them, but they both staying with their families. One night after dinner, I was able to help Maria Antonia write back to a past UD student who had stayed with her at the beginning of May. While I looking for paper and a pen to use, Maria Antonia explained that she never had the chance to learn to read and write in school because there was always so much work to do around her family’s farm. It was only after she had her own family that she was able to teach herself to read and write. After she finished writing the note, she had me read the note for clarification– to make sure the UD volunteer would understand the message. It was a rewarding experience to be able to support Maria’s continued communication with other UD volunteers, and made me admire her entrpreneurial drive for learning.
It was incredible to see that along side of all of the changes that are happening within the community, there is still the same feel of the people– their dedication to improving the lives of their family members and their drive to learn about the world.
July 4, 2009
Happy 4th of July!
I am so excited to be enroute to Nicaragua on this Saturday aftenoon. I had a wave of nostalgia while packing all of my rain gear, keens, bringing the travel backpack out. Reading the blogs of the UD students who are currently in Nicaragua has been inspiring and motivating, I’m excited to head back!
I keep thinking about that quote “You never step in the same river twice”—I think it might actually be from Pocahontas—I’m willing to admit my attachment to Disney films 
I know that I am returning to the same community and will be greeted by many familiar faces, which is so comforting. However, as much as I am looking forward to seeing the familiar faces and be back in the community, I am equally as excited to experience many of the changes that are taking place! The final allocation of the SEED Award is being used to establish Las Mujeres Solares as a cooperative—which is an incredible step towards the business development! Not to mention, I can’t even imagine how much Cherling, the darling grandaughter of Maria Antonia who I lived with last summer, must have grown in one year!
Another exciting development for this trip is Lauren Dokes, Salud del Sol, Inc. Director of Finance, will be traveling with me to Nicaragua! This will be Lauren’s first trip to Nicaragua and I think it will be an incredible experience for her and the rest of our team.
It will be a packed week, full of catching up with the women of Las Mujeres Solares, the field team of Salud del Sol, Inc., and the leadership team of Grupo Fenix. We have also been able to set up meetings with people and organizations that we met last summer, such as the energetic Rotary Club of Ocotal, the Jubilee House Community of Ciudad Sandino, and hopefully we will have the chance to meet with the students from the UNI that are researching a model of the solar autoclave in Managua.
In addition to work with Salud del Sol, Inc., I also will be working with a project through the Innovations in International Health Program of MIT. The Inter American Development Bank is funding a project to teach innovative biomedical training kits to doctors within the CIES School of Public Health in Managua. For the past few weeks, Jose Gomez and Lisa Schlecht have been developing training kits including a variety of technologies to bring to Nicaragua. The goal of the kits is to demystify various medical technologies such as microfluidics, diagnotistics testing and nebulizers to encourage doctors to adapt their equipment to their own needs or to repair equipment on their own. It’s quite an exciting project and I’m excited to be a part of it!
Thanks for reading, and check back often for updates and thoughts from Nicaragua!
-Anna
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