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Floor plan of the ITC building.

Solar Power Demonstration Project - Mbita, Kenya

 

BACKGROUND

The recently built Island Technology Center (ITC) computer training center in Mbita, Kenya will provide low cost computer training and educational classes to the community, resulting in positive benefits such as increased literacy and technical skills for the population. Since Mbita is geographically located on the equator with over 6 hours of sunlight a day, the proposed energy source is solar energy. In order to harness this solar energy, the usage of solar panels has been determined to be the most cost effective and environmentally friendly.

OBJECTIVES

-To provide detailed recommendations for a solar power system including solar panels, batteries, generators, energy outputs, and hardware.
-To research components, vendor information, price breakdowns, energy requirements, energy load analysis, and anti-theft devices
-To become familiar with the local culture in order to understand the needs of the client

 

Team Lead:
Anita Prasad

Phone: (408) 393-0010

E-mail: aprasad@ucsd.edu

 

Advisor:

Clark Guest, Ph.D.

Phone: 858-534-6549

E-mail: cguest@ucsd.edu

 

Webmaster:
Alex Sullivan

E-mail: avsulliv@ucsd.edu

 

To contact us:

TIES Coordinator:
Mandy Bratton, Ph.D.

Phone: 858-822-4164
Fax: 858-822-3904
E-mail: mbratton@soe.ucsd.edu

 

EWB/SD Chapter

TESC

Jacobs School

PROJECT GOALS

The goal of this project is to promote community development through education. University education is unaffordable to most locals, and few score high enough on the national exams to receive scholarships. The goal of this project is to provide low cost computer training and educational classes to the community, resulting in increased literacy and technical skills.

CLIENT

Engineers Without Borders (EWB), San Diego Chapter

EWB-San Diego is dedicated to designing and implementing sustainable engineering projects in developing communities around the world under the guidance of EWB-USA.  There is a wide range of needs including sustainable/renewable sources of energy, clean water, and sustainable enterprise development.  EWB-USA project participants are asked to promote high engineering standards by following the American Society of Civil Engineers' Code of Ethics.

TIES Home

Spring Quarter 2010

OBJECTIVE

Our main objective is to provide a prototype of the full scale photovoltaic system to log solar data and to teach the Mbitan community sustainability, self sufficiency and proper system maintenance.

QUARTER GOALS

- Finish the final construction of the solar prototype by eighth week. The prototype will be relatively self-operational (minus set-up) and be able to begin collecting solar data by summer.

- Deploy the solar prototype on the roof of CalIT2 for summer testing.

- Raise money to travel to Mbita with Engineers Without Borders during their summer 2010 site assessment.

Team Members:

TA: Zach Salin
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Clark Guest

Photovoltaic Prototype

(unfolded)

 

Power ouput: ~50 W per unit

 

Modular design allows multiple units to connect for greater power needs

Photovoltaic Prototype (folded up)

 

Uses a hinge/latch system for easy portability and deployment

Matthew Deibel

Noah Paul-Gin

Anita Prasad

Alisha Roger

Alex Sullivan

Andrea Wong

Wade Wright

Yukun Zhang

Rear view:

 

Charge controller/data logger (gray)

 

Power Inverter (green)