Solar Roots
Renewable Energy for Community Development
Solar Roots' goal is to install and teach about Renewable Energy systems that will empower people in developing countries to create a more sustainable lifestyle. The world is at critical point right now, facing with many challenges: Peak Oil, Climate Change, Overpopulation, Resource Scarcity and Pollution. Solar Roots offers renewable energy technologies to lower our carbon footprint and bring us back into a more balanced relationship with the natural environment, upon which we depend.
LATEST!
May 2012
I am now in Madagascar, getting ready to start a solar installation in the village of Ambohimahasina, where I have worked before. Right now, I'm making final material purchases in Tana, and I can't wait to get out of town!
See how my wood stoves and solar cookers are being used in the Zahana project in Madagascar:
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/solar-cookers-for-the-school-in-fiadanana/updates/
See also a short Facebook item about my recent stove training in Nu Po refugee camp:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150564370772050.377649.684572049&&l=feb1be787b
Although, I'm not sure I like my stove being called a Drooper!
If you would like to support my work, please send a check, made out to "Solar Roots", to Solar Roots, PO Box 2838, Berkeley, CA 94702. All donations are tax deductible in the US, to the full extent permitted by law.
May 2012
I am now in Madagascar, getting ready to start a solar installation in the village of Ambohimahasina, where I have worked before. Right now, I'm making final material purchases in Tana, and I can't wait to get out of town!
See how my wood stoves and solar cookers are being used in the Zahana project in Madagascar:
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/solar-cookers-for-the-school-in-fiadanana/updates/
See also a short Facebook item about my recent stove training in Nu Po refugee camp:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150564370772050.377649.684572049&&l=feb1be787b
Although, I'm not sure I like my stove being called a Drooper!
If you would like to support my work, please send a check, made out to "Solar Roots", to Solar Roots, PO Box 2838, Berkeley, CA 94702. All donations are tax deductible in the US, to the full extent permitted by law.
Rocket Stoves
This is one of the rocket stoves I built in Sangklaburi, Thailand being introduced to a new user in Children of the Forest.
I built the stoves out of used drums with rocket elbows welded from square tube mild steel. This stove will consume at least 25% less wood to do the same cooking task. Note the metal skirt around the pot, which gives another 25% fuel efficiency.
This is one of the rocket stoves I built in Sangklaburi, Thailand being introduced to a new user in Children of the Forest.
I built the stoves out of used drums with rocket elbows welded from square tube mild steel. This stove will consume at least 25% less wood to do the same cooking task. Note the metal skirt around the pot, which gives another 25% fuel efficiency.
For details on the work done in the last four years, please go to the Blog Page
Solar Training
Here we are demonstrating the characteristics of solar cells and becoming familiar with multimeter testers. Students are learning that shade is the enemy of photovoltaics and that panels must be in full sun for optimal production. Having hands-on experience is critical to properly understanding this technology and retaining the knowledge. Here we see the new high technology of photovoltaics meeting the age-old technology of writing on one's hand!
Here we are demonstrating the characteristics of solar cells and becoming familiar with multimeter testers. Students are learning that shade is the enemy of photovoltaics and that panels must be in full sun for optimal production. Having hands-on experience is critical to properly understanding this technology and retaining the knowledge. Here we see the new high technology of photovoltaics meeting the age-old technology of writing on one's hand!
Current Location and Activity
Schedule for 2012
Jan - Vietnam - Paul Olivier's recycling project
Jan - Thailand - Nu Po refugee camp - Stove and solar trainings
Feb- Apr - Myanmar - Solar and stove trainings
May - Jul - Madagascar - Solar installation and maintenance trainings, plus working with local stove builders
Schedule for 2012
Jan - Vietnam - Paul Olivier's recycling project
Jan - Thailand - Nu Po refugee camp - Stove and solar trainings
Feb- Apr - Myanmar - Solar and stove trainings
May - Jul - Madagascar - Solar installation and maintenance trainings, plus working with local stove builders
Latest Blog Entry: April2012
Burmese Times #2
RE: The two most important letters in the alphabet right now
REduce
REuse
REcycle
REdesign
and of course........ Renewable Energy!
REduce
REuse
REcycle
REdesign
and of course........ Renewable Energy!
Pot skirts
Here, a family of aluminum smelters is discussing how best to make the pot skirt I have just described to them. A metal skirt surrounding a pot forces the hot gases that are normally lost, to scrape against the sides of the pot, thereby giving heat transfer through the sides as well as the bottom of the pot. Up to 25% fuel savings can be realized by using a pot skirt and it works equally well on all stoves.
Here, a family of aluminum smelters is discussing how best to make the pot skirt I have just described to them. A metal skirt surrounding a pot forces the hot gases that are normally lost, to scrape against the sides of the pot, thereby giving heat transfer through the sides as well as the bottom of the pot. Up to 25% fuel savings can be realized by using a pot skirt and it works equally well on all stoves.
M.Jacques and M.Donne prepare the solar panel for installation on the Ambohihamasina
clinic, Madagascar.
Stoves
I became interested in cook stoves when I was in Madagascar in Spring 2010 and I saw
families spending many hours in smoke-filled kitchens, cooking over open fires. I decided to dedicate the next 12 months to learning about improved cookstoves and to helping promote their use in developing countries. This Summer I studied at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon. http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/home. I learned a great deal
during my two visits there, especially important was finding out what a complex subject the improved cook stove is. Not only are there many technical issues, but there is also the equally important matter of acceptance into the traditional cooking culture. You may have the best stove in the world, but if the cooks don't like it, it will sit in the corner gathering dust! This is one of the major problems with solar cookers - they are just too different from what the cooks are using right now and they break some of the patterns that are central to daily village life. I believe that solar cooking will be widely adopted in 30 to 50 years from now, but we will have a transition period where over 2 billion people will still depend on bio-mass sources for cooking. This is why improved wood and charcoal burning stoves are so important. Hopefully, during this transition period we can vastly increase the efficiency and usability of solar cookers and begin to reverse the deforestation that is destroying our natural heritage.
I became interested in cook stoves when I was in Madagascar in Spring 2010 and I saw
families spending many hours in smoke-filled kitchens, cooking over open fires. I decided to dedicate the next 12 months to learning about improved cookstoves and to helping promote their use in developing countries. This Summer I studied at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon. http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/home. I learned a great deal
during my two visits there, especially important was finding out what a complex subject the improved cook stove is. Not only are there many technical issues, but there is also the equally important matter of acceptance into the traditional cooking culture. You may have the best stove in the world, but if the cooks don't like it, it will sit in the corner gathering dust! This is one of the major problems with solar cookers - they are just too different from what the cooks are using right now and they break some of the patterns that are central to daily village life. I believe that solar cooking will be widely adopted in 30 to 50 years from now, but we will have a transition period where over 2 billion people will still depend on bio-mass sources for cooking. This is why improved wood and charcoal burning stoves are so important. Hopefully, during this transition period we can vastly increase the efficiency and usability of solar cookers and begin to reverse the deforestation that is destroying our natural heritage.
Firing the clay liners for charcoal stoves in in Laos. The fuel is rice husks. Must be a smoky business!
Antoine with students from the Un Plus Un school on Latoti, Haiti.
