El Blog: Volunteering at Centro Solar

The Solar Center is made up of two major units – a workshop where solar electric panels are made and sold, and a cooperative of 20 women who make and sell solar cookers. The Center works closely with the national engineering university in Managua and other universities in the U.S. in developing and testing various appropriate technology solutions for rural areas. Eventually, the cooperative would like to build a restaurant on site where they would sell organic veggies grown on site and food cooked in the solar ovens. The Center is already powered with solar panels but they are also considering a methane digester to supply fuel for cooking.

Since we are only here for a month, we are a bit limited in the scope of volunteer project that we can tackle. Although people had high hopes for us repairing a previous volunteer’s attempt to build a small wind turbine, we know enough to steer clear of that disaster. Instead we have committed to doing two major projects: using our GPS to make an accurate map of the community, and giving a presentation on wind energy (in Spanish). We also help out with whatever day-to-day tasks come up, like watering or weeding the garden, fixing a broken sign, picking up trash, etc.

Last weekend we were able to help out with two solar electric installations in the community. Each system consisted of a 60 watt solar panel (made at Centro Solar), a battery and charge controller, and four compact fluorescent light bulbs. These are 12 VDC systems and can really only be used for lighting…sorry no TV! A chapter of the Rotary Club in Ohio funded much of the installations and sent four “Rotarians” to Nicaragua to help with the installation and see what their organization could do in the future to help the community. One of the installations was in The Projects, a cluster of houses in the community that were built after hurricane Mitch destroyed many of the homes in the mountains. The Projects have electricity, but it’s all unofficial (do-it-yourself distribution lines) and frequently fails. Much to our surprise, our team of novice installers managed to get everything right the first time and avoided starting any electrical fires.