November 30, 2009 | Posted by Anna | Post has No Comments
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 | Posted by Anna | Post has No Comments
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 | Posted by Anna | Post has No Comments
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.
August 31, 2009 | Posted by Daniel | Post has No Comments
August 4, 2009 | Posted by Erin | Post has 1 Comment
¡Buenas Días!
Just right off the bat here, I should warn you that I have had a pretty productive week with the autoclave, so this blog is bound to be pretty boring 
On the 27th, 22 elementary teachers arrived from California on a minibus packed to capacity and with a mountain of luggage on top. It looked like the sled from the Grinch after he steals all the presents and decorations. It was literally as if someone had dropped my elementary school into rural Nicaragua. And after they had settled in, it was even cuter. They were here as part of a Masters in Education class and worked with the students at Sabana Grande Elementary every morning on projects that related science and art. Because of this, they all wore nametags made of construction paper, hung around their necks with yarn, but they left them through lunch and all afternoon, when they had class at the Solar Center. Furthermore, whenever the professor wanted the attention of the group, she would clap out a pattern. The rest would repeat it, and then fall obediently silent. It makes me wonder what strange habits engineers carry into their personal lives. I guess I do carry a calculator in my purse…
On Friday, the teachers directed a “Sun Fair,” in which the kids sang songs and showed off to their parents what they learned all week. Each grade level presented a different project or song related to weather or energy. It was great. They sang “Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun” but it was called “Sol, Sol, Señor Sol Dorado” and “De Colores.” I cheered very loudly for my little sister Alexandra. After the younger kids performed, my older sister Vanessa and Luis Miguel, Donald and Maricela danced to one of the traditional Nicaraguan songs, all dressed up in beautiful silk outfits. Oh, I almost forgot! There was an absolute downpour all day. The irony was not lost on Adelina, who joked that I had better remember to wear my boots and raincoat to the Sun Fair.
Another good thing about having the teachers here for the week was the food. Typically, the volunteers walk a few kilometers to the house of one of the Mujeres Solares for lunch, which is always delicious. However, last week there were just too many of us to fit in one house, so fearless Dona Carmen and Dona Vidalia brought the food to us! It was like Thanksgiving every day at 1. Amazing. One day, Dona Carmen made pepper-crusted chicken in the solar oven that was so good that my mouth is actually watering just thinking about it. And speaking of cooking, I made something in my little solar oven yesterday! An egg, haha. But it was really good!
So you don’t get the impression that all I do is attend school plays and eat delicious food, I’ll say a little about the autoclave. All last week I did tests comparing the heating curves of the giant solar ovens and that of the Frankencooker. Looks like the Frankencooker heats up fast enough that it can take advantage of as little as an hour of sun, whereas the bigger ovens take up to 5 hours to heat up during days with variable sun. This week, I’m going to seal the insulated space to minimize the heat wasted by heating up the whole box as opposed to just the volume inside the parabolic.
So, things are going well down here. I’ve got a week and a half left, and if I didn’t miss all of you so much, I could stay for much longer. It’ll be really difficult to say goodbye to everyone, but also great to see my American family and friends again.
