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OUR PROJECTS
The sun's energy is free to everyone and Nicaragua has an abundance of it. We look for ways to use the sun's energy to improve living conditions and show a path toward sustainable economic development and independence. The engineering students and graduates in Grupo Fenix share their knowledge by training local people how to build and operate simple solar devices like solar ovens, photovoltaic lighting, battery rechargers and solar hot water systems.
Solar Ovens Working in conjunction with Girasoles, a non-profit group specializing in solar cooker workshops, we have developed simple, effective and inexpensive solar ovens and hold workshops to show the people how to build and use them. These solar ovens can be made out of scrap cardboard, newspaper, aluminum foil and plastic in an afternoon, or over a week for a larger, durable oven made of wood and other materials. Made right, they all can cook food equally well. Followup is important to work through the adjustment problems of this wholly different kind of cooking. Solar ovens can also pasteurize milk and water. We are also working on other sterilization techniques based on the most efficient of the solar cooker designs. Low income Nicaraguans spend too much to buy poor quality natural gas or firewood for cooking. Gas is expensive, corrosive and only found in urban areas. Using firewood causes respiratory disease, a major killer among women who must cook for their families. The demand for firewood also causes deforestation in areas where dead wood is scarce. Near Honduras, it has even caused death and injury, as local people in search of firewood step on landmines left over from the Civil War. Photovoltaic (PV) Lighting We work with rural folks to build and install PV solar panels that power fluorescent lighting at night. Night in Nicaragua falls around 6:00 PM nearly all year. Rural families have only the light of candles, kerosene and diesel fuel (very polluting indoors). This inadequate light may cost $10-15 a month, or up to a third of the monthly family income. We have taught local people to build solar panels and install the panels, charge controller, battery and wiring necessary to run two fluorescent tube lights for four hours each evening. With micro-loans, poor families can own these systems after a few years and enjoy years of free light after that. Local workers are trained and certified as solar system technicians, and most of the money for the systems stays in the local economy. Grupo Fenix is collaborating with Terrasol, a US/Nicaraguan volunteer project that installed some of the first photovoltaic lighting systems in rural Nicaragua beginning in 1988. Through a generous private grant, Grupo Fenix is performing the maintenance on these systems. Land Mine Survivors In 1999 we received a grant from a Canadian governmental organization to help rehabilitate and train land mine survivors. Working with the Joint Committee of War Victims, teams comprised of former Sandanista and Contra soldiers are going into remote villages near the Honduras border to educate the people about land mines and to identify survivors. Land mines found are destroyed by the Army. Unfortunately, Hurricane Mitch has washed away many mines to new areas formerly considered safe. Landmine survivors are helped to get protheses and physical therapy. These people are then being trained (with the help of our engineers) to be solar practitioners who assemble and install PV lighting and battery recharging systems. Documents Visión Solar 2008 - 2013 - Report from the 5-year strategic planning meeting
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Contact information: Universidad Nacional de Ingenierķa - UNI Managua, Nicaragua Telefax: (505) 278-3133