Apr 29 2010
Students from the Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are harnessing the sun to help an improvised school in Haiti and start a novel dairy industry in Peru.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students and ESW members Alex Worcester, Andrew Chung, Gloria Condon, Casey McEvoy and Michael Jensen, an ESW faculty adviser, installed 2.4 kW capacity of solar panels on a school’s rooftop in Lascahobas, Haiti. This energy is sufficient to run 10 HP tablet laptops donated by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in addition to the laptops provided to the school through the One Laptop Per Child program.
The solar power system includes 32 backup batteries which can store sufficient electrical energy to run all laptops of the school for three days straight without sunlight. The team of students designed the solar system to be energy-efficient, and requires minimal maintenance work. The student team also has future plans for Lascahobas. The team plans to install software on computers, provide digital books in addition to investigating the possibility of creating a solar-powered fryer.
ESW members will visit Peru this year to continue their ongoing efforts in designing and developing a milk pasteurization system powered by sun. The project which started in the year 2007 under the guidance of Lupita Montoya, a former professor of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to assist the Canas and Langui communities of Peru by creating cost-effective, solar-powered pasteurization equipment.
Most families in these areas produce cheese, yogurt and milk; however, they do not have proper sanitation equipment in order to receive the necessary certification to market those products. To this end, the novel pasteurization systems will enable these families to comply with governmental regulations and as a result the families can start selling their dairy products.
Source: http://www.rpi.edu/