Progress

My work at Univ. Don Bosco is similar to my work at the Schatz Lab back home, in the sense that a day's work can seem trivial, and only at intervals do I get a sense that it's all adding up to something significant. This week I caught a glimpse of that kind of summing up. Ever since I finished teaching the course in late March, I've been working in this more nebulous arena where I'm trying to get a renewable energy institute up and running and help the university design a renewable energy demonstration project on campus. These projects feel like moving targets, as different players come and go and the university's objectives shift around.

But this week it started to feel like it's jelling. We had a couple of productive meetings with the main stakeholders on campus, and I completed a draft proposal and budget to ask the Alliance for Energy and Environment, a Central America-wide program sponsored by the governments of Finland and Austria, to fund a solar electric system on the roof of campus building 4, the same place where the renewable energy institute will be housed. We also cemented June 15 as the date for the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. embassy and the university. This agreement will allow the embassy to begin spending the $50,000 for equipment for the Science Corner (which forms the material foundation for the renewable energy institute). Meanwhile, I've also been homing in on a final version of the organizational plan for the energy institute, circulating drafts of the document and incorporating feedback from the stakeholders.

When I have some time between these tasks, I've been working on a preliminary design for another demonstration project on campus, a micro scale (1kW) pumped storage hydro system, which would act as storage in lieu of a battery for a 3.5 kW solar photovoltaic system. I just yesterday found a paper online by Chris Greacen, someone I've met briefly and whose work I've been acquainted with for some time. Chris does great work, always on interesting topics. He looked at the economics of using pumped storage on a small scale like this and concludes it really isn't feasible. Still, I think a pilot project has some appeal because a) it's a totally clean technology compared with batteries, and b) since the Salvadoran hydro power agency CEL is considering a large pumped storage project, this could offer a chance for Salvadoran engineers to tinker with the technology before taking on a big project.

A word of appreciation for Basilia, who is often so much better than I am at walking her environmentalist talk. In getting ready for this big excursion we're going to do with her family in June, we were lamenting how hard it is to avoid using throwaway plates and cups. With nearly 40 people going on this trip, we were potentially going to send a lot of paper or styrofoam to the landfill. Basi had the idea of buying durable, unbreakable plastic dishes and metal forks and spoons, and she went to the central marketplace and got a great deal on service for 50 people. After the trip, we'll leave them with her family for all their future gatherings. Basi, great idea and way to follow through!