blueEnergy France Hosts Wind Turbine Building Workshop

By Pierre Jamault - blueEnergy rendezvoused on October 20th, 2012 in the city of Le Kremlin Bicêtre, close to Paris to host a Wind Turbine Building Workshop. Behind the parking lot we discovered a very well furnished workshop with a dynamic team of volunteers waiting to show us how a wind turbine works by building a small one. After coffee, basics instructions were set up: 1 turbine built by 16 people on 7 workbenches in 2 busy days.

During these two days we had to sand wood, wind copper wire, mold magnets, shape metal and weld it. The explanations of the team were so efficient that we even had enough time to listen the presentation of blueEnergy and its activities by co-founder Guillaume Craig.

The variety of needed tools to build the turbine required some explanation in order to not make any mistakes. Thankfully the instructions and indications given by the volunteers, as well as discussions with the other participants, were really enriching. The meals prepared by our host were also great opportunities for other interesting discussions with the participants and hosts.

Welding the body

After all that work and many explanations in a very (too) short weekend, it wasn’t easy to remember everything but the wind turbine mechanism seemed clearer. To sum up: to succeed in wind turbine construction, you have to be a great craftsman, a little bit physician and obviously meteorologist to put it at the good place once it is taken out the workshop.

Carving the blades

blueEnergy France organizes 2 windturbine workshops per year (next one on Spring 2013, contact emilie.etienne@blueenergygroup.org for more details), with a maximum 12 participants, close to Paris. The windturbines are small models (1 meter diameter), based on the Hugh Piggott model. Although they work well, due to their small size and low power, they are used mainly for learning purposes. We gather people from different backgrounds to attend the workshop: students in renewable energies, retired people willing to know more about the windturbines to build one in their garden and individuals willing to spend an unforgettable week end by working for fun!

blueEnergy Celebrates the Planet

On Sunday, September 23rd, volunteers in blueEnergy France took part on Cesarts festival in Nucourt in the regional park of Vexin to celebrate the planet.

By Benjamin Loiseau – The Cesarts festival is an edutainment event organized to inspire local youth. This year's topics were energy, eco-mobility and protection of water and oceans. This was a godsend opportunity to show our expertise in wind energy and introduce our actions to a broader audience. About 1,500 people, most of them families, were in attendance.

The programs offered by the festival, such as face painting, feather-pinwheel making, a petting zoo, and concert greatly appealed to children. blueEnergy took its place in the festival in the "energy village" which consisted of other exhibitors in the fields of energy efficiency, hydro and solar energy. blueEnergy distinguished itself by emphasizing wind energy.

The blueEnergy team challenged the kids to attempt mounting a lego-style wind turbine by themselves, a real headache for some and a revelation for others. One little boy had succeeded in completing three models before heading home.

Kids learn how to build small turbines

In addition, a wind turbine made during a recent blueEnergy workshop was used as an exhibition model to show how it operates - all the way down to the finest of details. The opportunity to work with a captured audience also allowed us to introduce blueEnergy's energy access and clean water initiatives in Nicaragua to children and their parents. A small stand decorated with the Nicaraguan flag was displayed with wooden sculptures sculpted in Bluefields.

To conclude, this festival was not just a great opportunity to meet a young audience awareness on energy, but also interact with families and explain blueEnergy's work to the wider community.

blueEnergy team shows off a Piggott turbine

I would like to thank Marie-Claude Scherrer, Michèle Grégoire, Emilie Etienne, Pierre Santraud and Caspar Priesmann for all the help they provided during the festival and getting up at dawn on a Sunday morning to make this event possible.

blueEnergy France team!

French ambassador to Nicaragua visits blueEnergy

By Casey Callais -- Witness blueEnergy's impact firsthand, meet the movers and shakers of Bluefields and introduce himself to the coast, these were the main goals of Mr. Antoine Joly, the newly appointed French Ambassador to Nicaragua, during his recent visit to Nicaragua.

Upon his arrival, Mr. Joly was welcomed by the blueEnergy team and immediately began a two-day visit in Bluefields. His stay involved meeting with the mayors of Bluefields and Corn Island, an introduction to Franklin Brooks, Secretary of Economics for the Regional Government and Carla Martin, Sandinista government official. Mr. Joly also met with heads of the Bluefields police force and members of the municipal and regional government. These meetings were designed to provide Mr. Joly with a glance into the challenges and successes of  local communities, as well as to give Mr. Joly an opportunity to extend a warm handshake from France. Mr. Joly was a strong leader in the delocalized cooperation movement while serving as Director of Services for the mayor of Cannes, France; he believes strongly that municipal governments should be allowed to work independently of the national government when it comes to making decisions about foreign aid.

Guillame Craig (far L), Antoine Joly (L), Frankling Brooks (R), Carla Martin (far R)

Mr. Joly toured the neighborhood of Pancasan where he toured homes and saw blueEnergy water filters and community wells. Beneficiaries provided technical demonstrations of the water filters and wells and discussed the positive impact this technology has on overall health and quality of life.

bE Nicaragua Director Guillaume Craig (L), French ambassador to Nicaragua Antoine Joly (C), mayor of Corn Island Webster Cleveland (R) with bE staff and well beneficiaries (far R and behind)

Capping off the second and last day, blueEnergy presented its regional water and energy work to delegates of the local government and regional council while Mr. Joly pledged France's help with local development projects.

Photo album of French Ambassador to Nicaragua, Mr. Antoine Joly's trip to Bluefields, Nicaragua.

Ujambo? News from Tanzania

By Emilie Etienne -- Joël Lagoutte, volunteer from blueEnergy France, recently returned from Tanzania where he led a feasibility study with the social business EGG Energy.

EGG-Energy is a company working in Tanzania, which is dedicated to helping low-income consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa gain access to clean, affordable energy using a strategy based around portable rechargeable batteries. The first contact between blueEnergy and EGG Energy date back to the end of 2010. This led to an exploratory mission in August 2011 to determine how blueEnergy France could act in this beautiful country. After this mission, blueEnergy began providing EGG Energy with its expertise in the area of rural electrification, which assisted EGG Energy in implementing systems in rural areas.

blueEnergy sent Joël Lagoutte, a doctor who specializes in tropical diseases and has spent most of his career working with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Africa (for an  interview with Joel in French click here).  Joël's objective while in Tanzania was to identify villages which could serve as pilot areas to test new systems of portable solar rechargeable batteries in rural areas. His study is entitled: “Initial Community Study for Site Profiling and Selection of EGG-Energy’s Franchised Solar Hubs Project in Iringa Province, Tanzania,"

While Joël's was in Africa he shared his time between brainstorming sessions at EGG-Energy’s headquarters in Dar Es Salaam (on the Indian Ocean Coast) and Iringa, in the heart of Tanzania.

In the Iringa region, he surveyed 21 villages. Through meetings with the village authorities, representatives of public facilities, and the general public, the surveys covered four topics: the social and economic profile of the village, energy issues at the household level, energy issues at the community level, and the identification of potential franchisees.

Health and education in the villages around Iringa

While all of the villages have access to running water, the water quality is unknown. Children have access to primary school; there is also a secondary school in all wards. There is a medical dispensary in every village and a referral health center in all wards with a standard of care corresponding to the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

No systematic access to energy

The national electricity company does not reach these villages. The source of lighting for the majority of the population is from the use of kerosene lamps - despite their scarcity and high cost. The primary schools do not have electricity. Secondary schools have electric systems (solar or generators contributed from donors) but often these systems do not work. Almost all health facilities are well-equipped with electricity, usually through solar installations donated by NGOs and churches.

The main users of energy in all villages are the milling machines and mechanical workshops whose size and number depend on the wealth of the village. For the households it is lighting and mobile phone charging.

The development level varies greatly between each village; rice farmers are quite rich, which is not the same for corn farmers. Consequently, the richer villages are willing to own individual solar panels, while the poorer are more interested in the EGG system.

A promising study

Thanks to Joël’s study 5 villages have been identified for pilot projects. Pictures will be available soon,  but in the meantime, please view this video to get a sense of EGG Energy’s work in Tanzania. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJMPdw-B1kA

(Ujambo means "how are you ?" in swahili)

A day with blueEnergy

By Nathalie Baudier -- For the last three years, Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) has organized an annual Charity Day. This is a day when the 23,000 employees at RSA in 33 countries stop their daily work and help an NGO.

This year in the RSA Paris office, Cécile Lacroix, Nathalie Baudier and Flore Lauret chose blueEnergy.

We chose blueEnergy because we believe in their focus on sustainable development work, and our talents met their needs. 

Cécile, Flore, Nathalie from RSA and Sarah from blueEnergy

Our mission was:

- Study blueEnergy website and give our impressions

- Translate English articles in French in order to publish them in the French newsletter.

- Create a list of French organizations with short-term volunteer missions, such as the blueEnergy Service Learning Internship Program.

- Make a list of potential web-links to connect with blueEnergy.

We enjoyed our day. It was wonderful meeting Sarah and Emilie and assisting them projects, which made us feel very useful.

Thank you blueEnergy France!

The national “Salon des Solidarités”

By Sarah Ben Hadj -- From June 1st to 3rd, the fourth edition of the solidarity exhibition took place in Paris. This is the most important meeting for French and European actors of international solidarity.

No less than 18,868 visitors toured the aisles (vs. 15,000 in 2010, an increase of 26%) to reach out to blueEnergy and 249 other exhibitors. blueEnergy was enthusiastic to present our work inNicaragua and wind turbine workshops in Paris. We displayed a small wind turbine in our exhibition, which was a big hit!

The theme of the exhibition was the creation of the "innovation garden" which represents a space dedicated to present technical innovation in the areas of eco-building, water/hygiene/sanitation, agriculture and energy. blueEnergy presented the experimental solar dry latrine and received the innovation award for water/hygiene/sanitation sector.

blueEnergy receiving the innovation award for the solar latrine

What is a solar dry latrine?
This type of latrine has been tested by blueEnergy with the aim of reducing pollution caused by human waste, raise awareness on hygiene practices and assist with the creation of compost.

The operation is extremely simple: the compartmentalized seat of the toilet enables the separation of feces and urine. The urine passes through a sand and carbon filter before returning to the earth. The feces remains in the composting chamber, which is capped by a metal plate painted black. During the day the chamber heats up to a relatively high temperature, which eliminates pathogens faster than conventional dry latrines (about 45 days for solar latrines vs. at least 6 months for conventional dry latrines). Moreover, this type of latrine does not require water.

Constructing the chamber of the solar latrine

For the moment the latrine is still in the experimental period, but results show that the technology is extremely efficient.

We would like to thank Marie-Claude Scherrer and Michele Grégoire for their organization and power of negotiation (we were given more than twice the space to present!), and our volunteers Elisabeth Cremieux, Pierre Santraud, Gaetan Russo, Francois cochemé, Claire Winé, Binjamin Loiseau et Antoine Veyrat for installing, assisting and uninstalling the stand.

Part of the bE France team: François, Pierre, Marie-Claude, Emilie and Michèle

blueEnergy Brings Bluefields to Liomer, France

By Emilie Etienne -- On Thursday 14 of June, Benoit Desesquelles, who recently spent two and a half years in Bluefields, Nicaragua, went to the small village of Liomer, in the North of France. Accompanied by blueEnergy France Development Director Emilie Etienne, they had several meetings with village leaders about possible project collaboration between Liomer and blueEnergy.

This village, despite having only 400 inhabitants, is very dynamic, sporting a cyber cafe, an elementary school and several factories where some of the famous bottles of luxurious French perfumes are produced.

The village is led by Colette Michaux, the energetic mayor. Together with the Water Agency of the region (Agence de l’Eau Artois Picardie) she offered to fund one of blueEnergy’s water projects. The objective is to build 25 wells, 75 water filters and 20 latrines to provide 75 families of Bluefields with clean water and sanitation.

The Water Agency of Artois Picardie funds projects in several countries, but this will be the first time that they will take part in a project in Latin America. Concerning the village of Liomer, they have had an educational project in Mali and are interested in expanding to work with other regions of the world.

Benoit and Emilie met with Mrs Michaux and Arnaud Courtecuisse, head of the International Department of the Water Agency. Both Mr. Courtecuisse and Ms. Michaux are considering taking part in the Seminary of French decentralized cooperation, to be held in Esteli, Nicaragua, in November. blueEnergy is taking an active part in the organization of this event, coordinated by the French Ambassy of Nicaragua.

Benoit and Emilie meeting with Colette Michaux, mayor of Liomer,
and Arnaud Courtecuisse, head of the International Department
of Artois Picardie's Water Agency

During the afternoon, Benoit and Emilie introduced more than 20 children of Liomer’s school to the challenges facing Nicaragua in regards to lack of clean water and energy access. The difficult part for the nine-year-old children was correctly spelling Nicaragua - it is a tough one and may show up on their next spelling test! The presentation aimed to grow the children's awareness of the world’s inequalities: even if they are lucky enough to have proper sanitation installation, easy access to clean water and energy, it is not the case for all the children in the world.

Emilie explains how we can create renewable energy with wind and sun

The children were also introduced to the living conditions of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and had many questions and remarks. For many of them, it was the first time seeing houses on stilts or latrines built over rivers. It was hard for the children to imagine families drinking water from contaminated wells and having no way to properly dispose of or treat human waste. They also learned that nearly all transport along the coast is by boat; they were curious about blueEnergy biodigesters and the function of wind turbines. One aspect of life in Bluefields that is quite similar to that of the children is visits to the markets!

Benoit explains Nicaragua's geography while Helene Michel,
teacher of the class, writes key work on the whiteboard

The children's teacher, Hélène Michel, enjoyed the presentation: “...it was full of information for the students. We will continue to work on energy and water savings so that this presentation has an impact on Liomer children's lives.” Another way to foster intercultural exchanges between France and Nicaragua will be to build a partnership between Liomer and Bluefields students. Liomer students are ready for this collaboration, and they hope to hear soon from their Nicaraguan fellows!

bE sends mayor of Corn Island to World Water Forum in Paris

By Gaétan Russo, Michèle Grégoire, Emilie Etienne -- The sixth annual World Water Forum was held from March 12 to 16 in Marseille, France, and blueEnergy had the pleasure of bringing special guest Webster Cleveland, mayor of Corn Island. The central theme of the forum was "time for solutions." This forum brought together companies, associations and representatives of several organizations. Several members of blueEnergy France were present since part of a side event was organized blueEnergy.

This side event entitled "Innovation and North-South Cooperation", was promoted last September by members of the board of blueEnergy. Gradually, other NGOs, companies and research institutes joined this great project to talk about innovations in water projects of developing countries. The event was supported by the Water Academy and the Foundation SIWA-CFET.

Speakers of the round table are finalizing their presentation

The side event was held March 13 and Marseilles, and included three roundtable discussions on the topic of innovation ( financial, technical and cultural ) with players representing the complexities of this subject. Contributors included Antenna Technologies, TMW, hydrolic without Borders, ProNatura, Kynarou, water dries, SIDECM, Andre N'Guessan: of AgroParisTech, The Source SIT and of course, blueEnergy

Emilie talks about bE's innovative ways to fund social projects
(implication of beneficiaries, local institutions and the Service Learning Program

During blueEnergy's participation in the roundtable on financial innovation, we discussed the approach of our association: involvement of local people in manufacturing facilities, involvement of local institutions and international support through solidarity missions (find details of the procedure here ).

Paul Barett, actor and professional coach, motivating the round tables

The panel discussions were moderated by the famous Paul Barrett. A total of forty people attended the event. bE was also represented at the Forum Alternative thanks to Marie-Claude Scherrer and Michael Gregory.

Finally, during the forum we hosted Mr. Webster Cleveland, the mayor of Corn Island off the coast of Bluefields. Mr. Cleveland was able to meet different actors working in the field of water and to seek solutions to problems of water and sanitation of the island.

Meetings were set up with the Nicaraguan embassy to France and Mr. Begorre, the French organizer of the forum. In a letter to both the Nicaraguan embassy in France and Mr. Begorre, Mr. Cleveland described the water conditions in Corn Island as grave:

The poor neighborhoods suffer serious health problems - dysentery, kidney infections and  more, that affect in particular children and the elderly. The population pulls water from traditional wells - shallow, poorly protected and contaminated. It is essential to find a solution this problem with sanitation, at least with the installation of dry latrines, educate the population for the long term and help them adapt step-by-step better rules of hygiene.

Mayor of Corn Island Webster Cleveland (l) and WWF organizer Mr. Begorre

Mr. Cleveland even got the opportunity to do some sightseeing while in Paris.The blueEnergy members accompanied him on the old port of Marseilles and to see the Eiffel Tower.

This participation in the 6th annual World Water Forum was therefore a success for the association blueEnergy and its partners, and a vital opportunity for visibility. Another big thank you to all participants of the side event!

Training time with blueEnergy: How we built a windturbine

By Gaetan Russo -- During two weekends, blueEnergy gathered fifteen people together in order to build a wind turbine, which was a smaller model of the wind turbine blueEnergy builds in Nicaragua.

The principal idea of this training was that we started with raw materials and built the wind turbine step by step, this was not only an assembly of the different parts of the wind turbine but also the building of these parts before their assembly.

The different parts of the wind turbine and its construction:

A wind turbine is composed of different parts. The first one is the blades, which are made from three blocks of wood which we measured, cut and polished with different tools.

Carving a blade

The second part of the wind turbine is the rotor-stator system. This system converts the rotation of the blades into electric current. The rotor is composed of eight magnets and the stator by eight coils. The coils were made by winding 140 turns of copper wire. After, both the stator and rotor were set within resin during one day. They were then removed from the mold. Then, the reels and the magnets were protected.

The followed part is the electronic part, which was to change the alternate current into direct current: we did some micro-welding with electronic component (diodes).

The body of the wind turbine was built by putting together several metallic tubes by arc-welding, which illustrates that this training offered us the opportunity to do activities which we don’t practice usually.

The benefits of this training for blueEnergy and us:

This training is the opportunity for blueEnergy to illustrate one of their activities in Nicaragua. It sensitizes people and highlights the activities of blueEnergy. More generally, the permits to people to discover the organization.

Explaining the rotor

For people it was the chance to work together, to meet others and to build something with their hands in a lively atmosphere.

I invite you to join us during the next training in France: April 21st and 22nd!

For more information, please contact Emilie Etienne at emilie.etienne@blueenergygroup.org

 

            

bE France hosts another successful fundraising event

By Tom Louis Teboul -- Last February 9th, blueEnergy France carried out its annual fundraising event at the Comptoir General, one of the most interesting and original place in Paris, next to Canal Saint Martin and its romantic bridges. This year we decided to highlight the eco stoves: we raised around €6,000 Euros (about $8,000 Dollars) for this program, thanks to 200 people who attended the party!

Emilie Etienne explaining why our cookstoves
are the winners against diseases and deforestation

This fantastic event was divided in few acts to allow visitors to take time to discover blueEnergy and enjoy the party:

Les Flibustiers de l’Imaginaire, an improvisation theater company, created magic moments and underlined that this event would be an amazing night again. Simon Beaudoux started and thrilled us with poetry and powerful French lyrics. Les Génisses dans l’Maïs continued Simon Beaudoux’s strength and set fire with guitar and accordion. To end, Latinamundo band brought salsa’s heat into visitors’ feet.

Les Flibustiers de l’Imaginaire

To introduce people to Caribbean atmosphere, we had also Nicaraguan handicrafts for sell and a mysterious “wawashang cocktail” with the famous rum, Flor del Caña.

This blueEnergy France fundraising event was the perfect time to explain and present the large blueEnergy panel of activities. Volunteers were free to answer and to talk with visitors.

All participants confirmed that the event was an amazing moment and we thank you all for coming and partying for blueEnergy!

blueEnergy invites you to its 2012 fundraising party in Paris!

Let’s meet on February 9th at Comptoir Général, Paris (80 quai de Jemmapes, 75010) from 7:30 pm to 11:30 pm! 

The party will include four different acts! Flibustier de l’imaginaire will open the event with an improvisation theatre play, then Simon Beaudoux will sing (guitar and voice). Génisses dans l’mais’ band will continue warming the party with rural Rock and be followed by Latinamundo and their suave Latin dance steps. 

All the while, Caribbean activities will help you discover Nicaragua: mysterious cocktails, crafts, local coffee tasting… 

Get your tickets here: http://www.moxity.com/events/soiree-de-soutien-a-blueenergy_2!

Gilma and Denis with their three children and cookstove

To complement blueEnergy Nicaragua efforts in favor of sustainable energies, training and drinkable water access, blueEnergy France has decided to finance 200 cook stoves this year. All benefits will be used for blueEnergy activities, and in particular to finance cook stoves. These cook stoves use only half of the coal necessary for a traditional stove (Nicaraguan families often use wheels as improvised stoves). They also reduce domestic pollution diseases, the coal budget, deforestation and they make micro-enterprise creations, like street canteens, easier. 

If you want to contribute, you can sponsor different kinds of stoves here: http://blueenergy.aiderenligne.fr/donner/soiree-blueenergy.html. (In France, you receive a 66% tax-credit for donations. If you donate more than 40 Euros, your party entrance is free!)

Information:

Comptoir Général – 80 quai de Jemmapes – 75010 Paris

Subway: Jacques Bonsergent (L5), République (L3, 5, 8, 9, 11) et Goncourt (L11)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entrance (with a free drink):

- Discount Ticket : 8 €

- Normal Ticket : 12 €

- To be member: 40 €

- Cook stove : 120 €

We cannot accept credit cards.

Get your tickets: http://www.moxity.com/events/soiree-de-soutien-a-blueenergy_2

Number of tickets is limited!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

blueEnergy and Schneider Electric in Madrid

By Julie Petrucci -- Between February 17th and 22nd, blueEnergy France organized, with the support of Schneider Electric, a challenge for the graduating class of 450 students of MBA (IE Madrid). The aim was to create an electric product which can improve the living conditions and generate new income for developing communities. The target for the challenge was the 257 inhabitants of Monkey Point. At the end of the week of competition, two teams were rewarded for their hard work.

We warmly thank IE Madrid for its hospitality and our partner Schneider Electric.

Evening of Support 2011 was a great success!

By Julie Petrucci --The annual blueEnergy Evening of Support, which gathered approximately 200 guests, took place at the Comptoir Général, Paris. According to its projects 2011, blueEnergy went with a water theme and invited people to sponsor a bio-sand water filter.

Several highlights of the evening: tasting of wine of the Domaine Modat, a close-up magician, theater of improvisation of the Flibustiers de l’Imaginaire, the Mezcla del Paris and their flamenco rhythms, and to finish, les Génisses dans l’maïs playing a tune of gypsy jazz.

The joke of the evening was a little "present from Nicaragua". It was labeled as a bottle of water filtered by blueEnergy bio-sand filters, but in reality, the water was from a French spring!

The evening was a success for blueEnergy, thanks to the support of the participants, our financial partners, Alto and Drillscan, the Domaine Modat and the bakery " Certains l’aiment chaud ".

Thank you!

Wind Power Workshop in Dakar, Sénégal

Clément Joulain was a volunteer with blueEnergy in Nicaragua in 2008 and 2009 working on wind turbine design, construction and testing.

Clément Joulain working on a blueEnergy
wind turbine at INATEC in Bluefields, Nicaragua

By Clément Joulain - Do you know that there are a growing number of organizations using locally made wind turbines for rural electrification? Many organizations all over the world are working on a similar concept. Some of these pioneers are isolated and do not benefit from strong interactions with other similar organizations. This network needs to be empowered.

In February 2011, blueEnergy, in association with Eolsénégal of Senegal and Tripalium of France, and with generous support from Schneider Electric, will co-host an international wind turbine conference in Dakar, Sénégal. This event will take place during the World Social Forum, from the 8th to the 12th of February.

The structure is innovative, with formal meetings and discussions combined with a practical course in order to build a 3-meter diameter turbine and several small machines for household electrification. People attending the course will be local people, craftsman, international experts, politicians and more.

Hugh Piggott, the guru of small wind, is the special guest. Many of his jet-set disciples will be there from Madagascar, Cameroon, Mozambique, Palestine, Korea, Mali, USA, Germany, Peru, and Nicaragua.

Another goal of this event is to build the foundation of an international Association of local wind turbine builders, to support the network, create a website and discussion board, organize other conferences, and help organizations with fundraising by themselves or in groups.

If you would like to attend, please contact Anne Cécile (acmailfert@gmail.com) or Clément (clementjoulain@gmail.com) for more information.

 

The blueEnergy wind turbine team in October, 2008 in Bluefields, Nicaragua:
Jonathan O'Toole, Sébastien Lohr, Hugh Piggott, Clément Joulain,
Loïc Quéval, Mathias Craig and Olivier Coupiac

 

 

 

blueEnergy wind turbine building workshops

By Mathias Craig -- blueEnergy has been building wind turbines in Nicaragua since 2004 to electrify remote villages and provide backup power for their facilities in Bluefields. In the last year, blueEnergy France introduced wind turbine building workshops in Paris both for the general public and as a corporate team-building activity. The purpose of these workshops has been to raise awareness of renewable energy and raise unrestricted funding to support blueEnergy's general operation. 

blueEnergy US is excited to announce that starting in early 2011 it will be offering wind turbine building workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in California with the same goals as the French workshops. The initial workshops will be targeted at high school and college students. blueEnergy has already drafted an initial agreement for the first such workshop to take place in the Spring at Midland High School (Mathias Craig's alma mater). Additional workshops are being discussed for Santa Clara University and Stanford.

blueEnergy France constructs two-day turbine workshop

During th last weekend of September, blueEnergy France organized a windturbine construction workshop in Paris. For two days, six people learned everything necessary to build a windturbine: how to carve a blade, how to wind a coil, how to cast resin and how to weld steel and solder copper. The only step missing was digging the foundations!







We also were happy to receive the help of Esteban and Fernando, two former bE Nicaragua volunteers who were guests in Paris. This first experience was a success for everybody, and the blueEnergy France team will soon repeat it.