Friday, April 18, 2008

Still update

Correction to the Tampa Bay statistics last time. Yeah, we don’t stand a chance against the desal plants in production:
Desal plant: One day 25M L, two days 50M L.
Still: One day 2L, two days 4L…

Even with the 10M in annual costs for the desal plant, we can’t compare in output. All I can say, is that the price of oil doesn’t look like it’s going down anytime soon. So… hey TB plant operator, we’ll see you in 50 years chubby.

Lots of movement with the solar still project. About three weeks before we were to start the second phase, an improved still model and copper pipe solar hot water heater, the school said they didn’t have sufficient funding. Bummer.

Nick and I considered submitting a Peace Corps Partnerships Program Proposal and ask you all to help fund the $1000 second phase. At the last minute, Nick followed a contact from our boss Yonis, and convinced the Luxembourg Cooperation to foot the bill. (The Luxembourg Cooperation built and still funds all four of the technical school’s in Cape Verde.)

In the last seven weeks of school, along with our seniors and other Civil Construction professors, we’re going to build a copper pipe solar hot water heater, to increase the temperature before it enters the still, and an improved still model, designed by Nick. The new model has three small steps raising the saltwater basin so the water vapor doesn’t have to travel as far to catch on the glass.

The attached proposal includes design plans, materials list, and brief plans for the future. We’ve set a goal to design a model (including hot water heater and still) that sufficiently distills enough water for one person per day, 20L.

This week the project was accepted at the 2008 EuroSun Solar Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Looks like Nick and I are takin a trip baby!

This week the Centers of Business and Professions, a 6-12 month institution offering classes on various subjects ranging from auto mechanics to the Internet, agreed to fund a pilot lecture/construction program in conjunction with the second phase. Sometime in May, Nick will give a 20-hour lecture on solar distillation and use the continual construction of the second phase to demonstrate the project’s simple construction to qualified teachers at the Business Center’s.

Along with the director’s of the Center’s, we are considering starting a new program on smart energy projects and/or connecting these ideas with existing programs like hydroponics. Either way, in the first lecture, the information will be divulged among bright, ambitious Capeverdeans who could potentially take this project to the community level.

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