From Berkeley to Bluefields and Back: Cal Energy Corps Student Symposium

By Kate Graham --blueEnergy is known for going to the edge, working where others won’t to provide energy access, clean water and sanitation solutions to those living along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. But, who are these individuals choosing to cross borders and spend their time working on the periphery, navigating an area lacking roads, modern equipment, tools, and power? Many are participants in blueEnergy’s Global Leadership Program, a program geared to provide the next generation with the opportunity to witness and respond to the needs of the most isolated poor.

bE co-founder Mathias Craig speaking at the symposium

This past summer three Cal Energy Corp students, Casey Finnerty, Mauricio Castillo and Jonathan Lee traveled to Nicaragua to participate in blueEnergy’s Global Leadership Program. The Cal Energy Corps is an undergraduate internship program created to engage the best and brightest students from UC Berkeley in the design, development, and delivery of sustainable energy and climate solutions across the world. Through Cal Energy Corps student research efforts, blueEnergy is able to test and pilot new solutions that have the potential to become services providing great value to blueEnergy’s beneficiaries.

Superstars! Casey, Mauricio, Jonathan

Casey, Mauricio, and Jonathan spent 9 weeks with blueEnergy (details from their time in the field is documented here and here) and arriving back at Berkeley were given the opportunity to present projects and blueEnergy experiences at the Cal Energy Corps Symposium. As they stood beside posters highlighting their work, each student spoke about the challenges associated with project implementation in rural coastal communities and the best practices that emerged after weeks of researching and testing.

Well rounded audience

The Symposium continued with a welcome by Dr. Graham Fleming, Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research. Dr. Fleming mentioned blueEnergy as a key Cal Energy Corps partner committed to providing meaningful experiences for students. Dr. Arun Majumdar, former professor of materials science and engineering at Berkeley and expert in transformational energy research and development, spoke to the audience in a key-note address about sustainable energy access as a human rights issue and encouraged Cal Energy Corps students to continue a path focused on global solutions.

Jonathan Lee: “Improving Longevity of Small Off- Grid Solar Photovoltaic Installations"

The symposium ended with a panel discussion, which included Mathias Craig, blueEnergy Founder and Executive Director. Mathias mentioned his summer visit to Nicaragua, where he witnessed Casey, Mauricio, and Jonathan working on the beginning stages of their projects – identifying beneficiaries, creating schematics, strategizing with blueEnergy technicians. Mathias also noted how well the students integrated into the culture and community of Bluefields. He praised Cal Energy Corps and called on Dr. Fleming to “send more students to Bluefields.”

"Send more students to Bluefields!"

blueEnergy is thankful for the ongoing relationship with Cal Energy Corps and appreciates following and supporting the progression and growth in projects and students from Berkeley to Bluefields and back. blueEnergy believes that through facilitating opportunities at the edge, in places far off the radar, stronger, more capable leaders, like Casey, Mauricio, and Jonathan will emerge, with the capacity and drive to create a more equitable, sustainable world.

(L to R) Tiff Dressen (New Initiatives Manger: Vice Chancellor for Research),
Casey Finnerty, Mauricio Castillo, Jonathan Lee, Mathias Craig, Kate Graham

For more information about blueEnergy’s Global Leadership Program and opportunities to work with blueEnergy in Bluefields, Nicaragua, please e-mail US Development Officer, Kate Graham at: kate.graham@blueenergygroup.org.

Check out our Picasa album for more photos!

WE CARE Solar Suitcase Shining Brightly in Rural Health Clinic

By Casey Callais -- The health clinic in Rama Cay is in a dire state with a rusted leaky roof, gates that don't close and access to only eight hours of electricity each day provided by a diesel generator. According to the nurse in charge of the three-room clinic, Maria McCrea the clinic receives no help from MINSA (Nicaraguan Ministry of Health) and patients are required to bring their own candles if they have to stay overnight. blueEnergy teamed up with WE CARE Solar to help alleviate a large problem at the clinic, the problem with light. 

WE CARE Solar designs portable, cost effective solar suitcases that power critical lighting, mobile communication devices, and medical devices in low resource areas without reliable electricity. By equipping off-grid medical clinics with solar power for medical and surgical lighting, WE CARE solar facilitates timely and appropriate emergency care, which greatly reduces maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. 

The Solar Suitcase is a complete 12-volt lighting package with battery, charge controller, waterproof LED lights and cellphone charging adapters that are neatly set in a portable plastic box. Usage habits are monitored monthly and the information will be sent to WE CARE Solar to help improve future versions of the Solar Suitcase.

blueEnergy supplied the solar panel and connected the device in the health clinic with the help of two French interns, Antoine and Claire. The install was led by blueEnergy staff member, Chris Sparadeo and members of the community pitched in to help make sure the install went smoothly.

There is much work still to be done in the clinic in Rama Cay, but now that they have the Solar Suitcase, they will not be working in the dark.

Meaningful Impact from a Service Learning Trip

By John Bowman -- I came into this weeklong internship questioning whether I could make a meaningful impact. I was short on time, with only a single week allotted by Duke University for spring break, and short on relevant experience or expertise, despite my fascination with solar energy and international development. Furthermore, I spoke minimal Spanish and absolutely no Creole English. My interest in solar energy and its role in economic empowerment stemmed from a two-week internship with a social business in Guatemala. The company sources small solar-powered devices to rural communities, and I was interested to see how a nonprofit’s approach to solar power differed from that of a business.

My experience began with a tour of Bluefields. I slurped a tamarindo, a juice made from a locally grown fruit, from a plastic bag while exploring Bluefields’ many barrios, or neighborhoods, visiting its pier, and wandering through a local market replete with fruits and plants with which I was entirely unfamiliar. Following the tour I attended a distinctly Nicaraguan baseball game with blueEnergy’s staff that pitted “The Coast”—the Caribbean coast’s only baseball team—against one of its many Pacific rivals. The atmosphere was electric; fans cheered loudly only a few meters from the players while reggae music blared. The game concluded in thrilling but disappointing fashion, with the crowd chanting “Si se puede” as the Coast’s star player hit a slew of foul balls at the bottom of the ninth, with loaded bases, two outs, and a full count before grounding out. The next day I trekked to a finca, a small farm in the middle of Nicaraguan jungle, hefting a sack of compost through the jungle while enjoying scenic views of the surrounding forest.

I spent the first half of my week learning both about blueEnergy and about solar power in general. I learned about how blueEnergy marries praxis and policy to deliver renewable energy and clean water to Nicaragua’s poor, collaborating with a conglomerate of renewable energy providers to push for policy reform while implementing its own solar systems in rural communities. Part of the hope of installing solar panels, as I learned, is that the implementation of this very modern technology will in fact preserve the traditional family unit and agricultural lifestyle. The light provided by the solar panels will allow children to study at the rural homes of their parents instead of being forced to remain in cities in order to have access to the electricity necessary to do their homework. I spent several hours in the workshop preparing for the installation by constructing a battery box, painting it, and attempting to master the basics of solar power in preparation for the installation that would take place later in the week.

The day of the installation, I left in the morning with two other blueEnergy volunteers, taking with us a pair of boxes full of supplies, a toolbox, a pair of solar panels, and a heavy battery. After arriving in Kukra Hill, a town near the home where the installation would take place, we boarded a bus that took our supplies and us directly to the home. There the elderly couple that owned the home and a menagerie of animals greeted us. The house was a model of sustainable development, already sporting a biodigester and a compost bin, and the couple were gracious hosts, cooking us meals while we worked, telling us stories in Creole while we ate, helping us whenever given the chance, and letting us spend the night in their home after the installation was finished. Though my inability to speak Creole limited the extent to which I could interact with the family, I left the installation with a deeper understanding of blueEnergy’s work. It had been one thing to learn about blueEnergy’s general approach to sustainable development, about how solar panels work and how to strip wires, but meeting the family put a human face to sustainable development. Having witnessed their hospitality and excitement to have light, I could appreciate the impact of blueEnergy on a different level.

John (center) with family in Rocky Point

So at the end of one week, I do feel like an impact has been made. But while I consider the installation of the solar panel a substantial part of the impact of this week, the more meaningful impact had been the impact of Nicaragua and blueEnergy on me. I experienced the culture of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast in ways that the typical scuba diving, beach-going tourist would not. I sampled local cuisine made from scratch by two local women (affectionately dubbed “the mamas” by blueEnergy staff) and visited a museum housing relics of Bluefields’ past, including the throne of a Rama King. I experienced the finca and reveled in the baseball game. I picked up some more Spanish and learned just a “likky” bit of Creole. More important than the cultural experience, I gained a greater appreciation for blueEnergy’s work by learning about the organization and meeting both the people who do its work and for whom its work is done. Most importantly, working with blueEnergy inspired me and challenged me to continue to think critically about sustainable development and to continue to seek out experiences in the developing world like this one.

blueEnergy installs 2000 watts of solar in Kahka Creek reserve

By Casey Callais and Angela Cacciola -- From the watch tower a mere hundred yards from the Kahka Creek eco-lodge guards can view an area some visitors call the “Garden of Eden,” 600 hectares of primary and secondary rainforest reserve. Any signs of fire or need for evacuation must be quickly evaluated; transportation to Bluefields and its limited medical resources requires a 40-minute walk or horse ride, and then three grueling hours in a panga down the river and across the wave-laden lagoon.



Carrying the batteries to the installation site

While only eight people live on the Kahka Creek reserve permanently, its ecolodge provides shelter for students and tourists from FADCANIC and abroad. Earlier this year, technicians from blueEnergy made the journey to the reserve and installed a 2000 W solar mini-grid. Funded by donations from Renewable World and comprised of six solar panels, one 4kW inverter, four charge controllers and a bank of 28 batteries, the system provides energy to the reserve’s ecolodge, school, workshop and guard house.

Placing solar panels on the roof

Previously, all four of these buildings had small, independent renewable energy systems, none of which provided enough electricity. Now, with a mini-grid and backup diesel generator, the hybrid sytstem can produce power seamlessly, regardless of poor sunshine.  With such power, the lodge's coference area and offices are able to show presentations and run computers. The school, which hosts workshops on sustainable farm management and classes for at-risk youth from the surrounding communities, can better serve the communities when it doubles as a health center to support the medical brigade that visits twice a year. Instead of always using diesel in the workshop, renewable energy can run all tools with motors up to 1hp. Lastly, the guard house where four rangers stay, has clean light at night so the guards don’t have to depend on candles and oil lamps.

Ronald (foreground) and Gilles (behind) securing solar panels

According to blueEnergy’s social team member, Cindy Bennet, those who come to Kahka Creek “look how to preserve the existing species and try to raise awareness of the local members that show them different management and how you can maintain and take care of the forest.” They also aid in reforestation efforts, as each visitor plants a fruit tree, which in the future will give the land’s inhabitants a source of food and income.     

Juan Carlos installing a junction box in the workshop

The indigenous community, Tasbapouni, owns the reserve's land, but has leased it to FADCANIC, a coastal development organization, for 50 years in hopes that they will teach people how to maintain and care for it. Susan Thienhaus, who has worked in Nicaragua for over 30 years, runs the reserve and its sustainable agroforestry program. She agrees that, “The relationship between blueEnergy and FADCANIC is an important one. blueEnergy offers the energy, the water, the technology. FADCANIC offers the education, the agriculture.” Both organizations aim to preserve the local way of life by respecting preexisting traditions - an approach necessary for attempting successful development work in marginalized communities on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.

Gilles showing off the control panel

blueEnergy would like to offer a big thanks to Renewable World and FADCANIC for their financial and logistical support. Through combined efforts, the reserve in Kahka Creek is better suited to meet the needs of visitors and people living in the surrounding communities because it now has sufficient light.

Intern Austen Brings the Gift of Light to Rocky Point!

As an intern at blueEnergy, Austen Sybert, a junior at John Hopkins University, USA, helped design, build, and install a solar panel lighting system for a home in Rocky Point, Nicaragua. During his two week trip, Austen also had the opportunity to visit three more communities in the Southern Atlantic Region of Nicaragua: Kahkabila, Pearl Lagoon, and Wawashang, to better understand both the joys and complications of development work in marginalized areas.

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By Austen Sybert - Paint was still drying, the solar lighting system was neatly packed and all the tools and spare parts double checked – the design and build phase of my project was coming to a close. The next morning I would load the installation materials on two taxis, a bus, a boat and a horse (not too remote by Nicaraguan standards), to reach the site of my solar install in Rocky Point. The solar array provided 60 watts, an amount sufficient to light two CFL bulbs, convert DC current to a versatile AC outlet and empower a household with the basic service of electricity. The family now had the opportunity to improve their own lives.

Chris Sparadeo and Austen Sybert holding the solar panels in a taxi

The final phase of my project, educating the household about their new solar system, proved to be the most difficult but rewarding phase. The household had a teenage girl, Kyoni, enrolled in a technical course on how to install solar systems. Naturally, she was engaged in acute oversight during the installation. Due to her keen interest I explained the steps and components to her as the installation progressed. When it came time to illuminate the dim home by connecting the battery to the system, I requested Kyoni make the connection and be responsible for lighting her family’s home. She cautiously agreed, connecting the red positive wire to the negative battery terminal and the black negative wire to the positive battery terminal which blew the current inverter. No light. This lapse in my supervision was far from a catastrophe to the installation process. I reminded her of the current charge of the wires and handed her the spare inverter to connect, which lit her home. 

Kyoni connects the charge controller

Several days later I had the opportunity to tour the P.L.A.C.E. school (Pearl Lagoon Academy of Excellence) with the blueEnergy board of directors. In one of the classes we visited, I spotted the girl who lived in Rocky Point and illuminated her home with the solar system I had the opportunity to design, build, and install. This class happened to be the Kyoni's technical course on how to install solar systems. I walked over to her, reminded her of my name and asked, “Do you feel like you know more about solar systems then your classmates?” She nodded, easily making this stop at her school the most rewarding point of my trip. To share a laugh before my tour continued I asked, “What’s the charge on black electrical wire and what’s the charge on red electrical wire?” Of course, she nailed the answers.

The Gift of Light: Rocky Point, Nicaragua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYZrw2cZnPM

By Angela Cacciola -- “I didn’t ask for it! But by God, am I thankful. We got light!” exclaims Miss Suzanny after her solar panel installation. Our two days in Rocky Point are filled with emphatic expressions like these. Earlier, Miss Suzanny’s son-in-law, Gene, joked, “To hell with Chonky and his light, I got my own!”

Forty families live in Rocky Point, a small farming community located between two larger coastal towns in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. Although the power lines pass through these lands, there are no plans to connect the houses here to the grid. Up until blueEnergy arrived in late November, candles and kerosene lamps produced the only light found in the little wooden homes at night. This has proven to be a dangerous solution to lighting needs. Last year two children died in a house fire in a neighboring community caused by a candle burning in their room. Now, two homes in Rocky Point are graced with 30-watt solar panels which provide four hours of light daily. Starting next year, blueEnergy hopes to continue its joint efforts working with the local governments and the local Peace Corps volunteer to provide solar panel systems to rest of the families who need light.

Installing Solar Panels in Rocky Point


Each solar panel system installation takes between four to six hours, and everyone around contributes to the efforts. The women cook delicious local specialties, the men chop down the posts necessary to raise the solar panels above the house and help with the electrical installation and the children retrieve whatever tools the men require.

Our first beneficiary, Chonky, greets us enthusiastically from his porch. Today his grandchildren are not around, but he does not remain alone for long. Soon enough, five friends arrive to help with the installation. Hours of laughing and good-natured joking, usually concerning the universally masculine topics of women, wine, and song, follow our brief, informal introductions.

Chonky's house is even dark in the daytime

Chonky is thrilled to finally be able to cook and read at night after work. “I read my bible,” he says. “I read these (pointing to magazines) what have notes of what going on in the world.” He holds up a half dozen spiral-bound manuals, “I am a technic man…I have a lot of course that I take and reference back to the material.” At night, Chonky’s lights can be seen shining from the hammocks close to his house where we sleep. On, off. On, off. A fundamental service like electric light can serve to amaze those who acquire it for the first time.

Panel at Chonky's house

Shortly after dawn, Gene leads us to his mother-in-law’s house for the second installation. The approach to Ms. Suzanny’s house is a picture perfect walk though a coconut grove flanked by enormous piles of coconut husks. Orange and cacao trees, sugarcane, corn, yucca, and beans, scattered throughout the grove provide ample amounts of food for people and animals alike. In the back sits a dilapidated, three-room, wooden house, complete with a hammock swinging from the front porch. The abundant coconut husks do not only remain in the forest; many are pressed into the dirt around the house, sufficing as a walkway to endure the sodden, muddy earth. Pigs relish in these mucky conditions, and can be seen competing with the chickens for scraps. If you stick around long enough, horses and cows will come by, and you might be able to catch a glimpse of the skittish calf left orphaned by disease.

The second install takes place with relative ease, as the panel fixed on the top of the wooden post chopped down from the bush is tied into the charge controller and battery. Gene’s two young sons take a shy interest and soon warm up to us. They make great helpers, responding quickly to find tools or help hold materials. We explain the difference between positive and negative, how a battery works, AC vs. DC and what the lights on the charge controller mean. Gene is just as fascinated as the boys, and repeats our explanations in his own words. He wants to be the first person the community calls on if there is any technical trouble.

Gene and Casey from blueEnergy running wire

Rocky Point the Community

Throughout the day, the family imparts their own knowledge upon us as well. Gene shows us how to properly use a long stick to shake coconuts from the tops of the trees and open them with the machete. His boys demonstrate the best way to forge through the jungle, swinging low with each slice of the machete to kill any potentially lethal snakes before stepping on them. They also boast their skills with slingshots, quickly returning with a bird. Miss Suzanny offers her kitchen expertise, the manner which to grate coconut and make tea from “cowfoot” leaves, along with hours of local history. 

Gene's kids help Casey secure the solar panel

During her mouthwatering lunch, Miss Suzanny takes out a poster board covered in pictures of the community’s progress over the past year. She talks about the communal house that was built and the weekly educational sessions that are to the adults who never had an opportunity to get much education. Clearly this farming community lives much more intimately than those in many places who have access to instantaneous communication resources. “If we see someone needs help, we will be right there doing whatever we can,” Miss Suzanny affirms. “We work together here. If he needs ten pounds of corn to plant this season and I have it, I will give it to him. Next time I need something, he will give it to me too.”

Ms. Suzanny and Gene with Gene's kids

The people of Rocky Point do not have much, but they share with us all that they can. We bring them their future, and they remind us of our past. The 30-watt solar panel blueEnergy installs in each house cannot power a factory, but it is enough to power two 9-watt bulbs. Two light bulbs are enough to give Chonky a few more hours a night to study his continuing education manuals and Gene’s kids time to finish their homework before they go to bed. Two light bulbs are enough to give both families peace of mind, instead of worrying about an open candle flame burning inside their homes. For the first two families who received light in Rocky Point, two light bulbs are a blessing.

It is because of stories like the one above that blueEnergy remains committed to providing basic energy services to people in some of the hardest to serve regions in the Western Hemisphere.

We ask for your support to help us help many more Chonky’s and Ms. Suzanny’s. Every amount counts as our network of support grows and we find strength in numbers.

Join us to make sure that everyone gets a chance. Give the gift of light.

1.2kW solar install in Tiktik Kaanu

By Casey Callais -- It was a long and challenging five days. We arrived after a sun-scorched ride up a jungle river, worked under constant threat of tarantulas, scorpions and a snake locally known as a mata vaca (cowkiller), and shared our rooms with bats and cockroaches that could carry off anyone who dared step on them (well, that part is an exaggeration, but trust me when I say they were BIG). The setting: Tiktik Kaanu, a Rama indian village on the Kukra River, deep in the Nicaraguan jungle. We had set out for the CETAF agro-forestry campus of the Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University. The challenge: we had less than a week to install a 1.2kW solar panel system to provide renewable energy to the caretakers' home and CETAF meeting hall. There are no phones, no electricity, no running water and no Home Depot around the corner if we needed extra screws. And of course, no hospital if the mata vaca decided to try his luck on we humans.

Control panel, battery bank and the donors that made it happen

We humans were six. Ronald ran the show. He is from Bluefields, Nicaragua and is the Director of Operations for blueEnergy. Alex is from Tiktik and has been working with blueEnergy for over a year. Vince is from France and is the coordinator for the productive uses of blueEnergy. If it is powered by our installations, he is in charge of it. Guillaume is a blueEnergy intern whose arrival was timed to give his engineering expertise. Then there was Simon who captured the installation on video and, of course, there was me. I was in charge of trip logistics and the house wiring. We were a team of blueEnergy veterans mixed with bE newbies in a community only one of us had been to. But we quickly found that we all were happy to brave the jungle creepy crawlies and put in the hard hours to get the job done.

Day one one team determined the optimal panel position while the second team began wiring the meeting hall. Day two was spent setting the foundations for the solar array and work began on the control panel. The solar panels were put in an day three, and the remaining days were spent running wires, cutting conduit, installing fixtures and working on the control panel. Needless to say, the days were long and sometimes frustrating. On day four I was thinking how nice it would be to have that Home Depot around the corner for more screws, but we made due with what we had. Before the caretakers had finished preparing lunch, we would run to the river for a quick swim. After lunch, it was back to wiring lights and running conduit, or positioning the control panel and installing breakers.  

On the last day as we were finishing up, representatives from the university arrived to inspect their new system. We had installed enough solar capacity and batteries to keep the ten rooms and the auditorium lit up throughout the night. We had given the students the opportunity to do their work later than sunset. The university was thrilled and the caretakers ecstatic. We were exhausted but very happy with the results.

Solar panels with the meeting hall/dorm behind

Check out the video in Spanish/English with French subtitles!