Anatomy of a Technical Training

Green Empowerment recently offered a technical training to over 30 participants (October 17-19) — arranged in partnership with Portland’s professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders and hosted by the Environmental Science & Management program at Portland State University (PSU).  The 2.5 day training focused on “Renewable Energy & Clean Water for the Developing World” and connected directly with Green Empowerment’s mission to partner with local NGOs and rural communities in Latin America and Southeast Asia to develop renewable energy and water projects in order to alleviate poverty and improve the environment.  In addition to local professional engineers and students from PSU, participants in the course included: Portlanders interested in international development, community based projects, water, and renewable energy; students from the University of Oregon; students from Linfield College; and Green Empowerment (GE) Interns & Volunteers.
 
The first evening session was led by Jason Selwitz, GE’s Director of Service Learning. He offered an introduction to GE, an overview of developing world conditions and needs (lack of power, lack of water), and how GE works to improve these conditions. As with most rural, off-grid service projects, the extreme importance of the cultural and social situation was frequently emphasized. This means learning about the “real” past and future needs of the community, as well as the necessity of creating reliable community-based upkeep (maintenance and repair) of any system. We looked at a case study of a solar water pump installation in the Philippines.
 
The second day was taught by Michel Maupoux, GE’s Renewable Energy Engineer. This began with a primer and short lab on electricity basics and then led into a discussion of solar power projects for rural communities. We learned about the extensive engineering and planning behind even a small installation. Michel offered several first-person stories, based on his own hands-on experience with projects in several countries. We were reminded that cultural and social differences can be interesting and are always challenging and are sometimes the largest (i.e., most time-consuming) part of a project.
 
The first part of the third day was also taught by Michel Maupoux. This session covered solar water systems, including project concepts as well as engineering and design. The remainder of the day was taught by Greg Price, MBA student at PSU and staff member of Abundant Renewable Energy (of Newberg, Oregon). The session was about wind energy. Greg gave us some basic background information about wind mill design theory and power production, as well as overall project considerations. We finished the day and the Training by assembling a small wind mill just outside the PSU Science II building.
 
Several of the PSU students, their professor (John Rueter), and Jason Selwitz will travel to several villages in Nicaragua at the end of this year to do a study tour/service project as a component of their  “Sustainable Innovations for Tomorrow’s Social Entrepreneurs” project team.  During their trip, they hope to: learn about a solar pump/water project, visit a recently installed solar water pump, meet with community members, learn about irrigation for home vegetable gardens, build solar cookers, plant trees, build an improved cook stove, help install a wind turbine demonstration, install 2-3 solar panels, learn about revolving loans fund for the household solar system project, and finally spend the night at a school and celebrate with the families who have electricity for the first time.