March 2008 Archives

This is Fiskani Msutu, our Malawian Co-ordinator, working on the new SolarAid laptop

Since the arrival of the first of two volunteers on 2nd February, Carl Van Zand, significant progress has been made, but not without challenges! Carl focused on design issues for the proposed micro-solar products, including the panel and the solar lantern. With the assistance of an independent carpenter, designs were developed using locally available materials. Using the glass amorphous plate, a wooden framed box structure was designed which incorporated three AA batteries for charging. A further design innovation was the use of the 0.3 Watt mono crystalline plate in a wooden housing that can be attached to the handlebar of a bicycle to be used by bicycle taxis to run radios. This last product application will be tested by a local bicycle taxi.

With regard to the solar lantern, Carl has innovated with the use of 50 mm PVC piping to hold the rechargeable batteries and LEDs. Further design work is necessary on this product.

Carl also delivered a training session to the Training Coordinators and CAT employees on the glass amorphous plates and solar lanterns. Production has now started at a workshop in CAT, involving three CAT selected employees in the assembly of glass amorphous panels in wooden frames.

The second volunteer, Dave Gillooly, arrived on 8th March and is currently focusing on establishing distribution and sales channels, as well as putting in place project reporting formats.

Fiskani Msutu has shown great initiative in pursuing contacts with key local government officials. So far, contact has been made with the Chief Executive of CONGOMA (the NGO registration body) and Fiskani is in the process of compiling all the requisite documents to proceed.

Contact has also been made with the District Commissioner of Nkhata district, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is in the process of being drafted.

Carl and Dave have also met and introduced themselves to the Chief Executive of Mzuzu city, who has offered to introduce us to key people in the Community Development department and local CBOs once Solar Aid have completed registration with CONGOMA.

These are examples of solar panels built by our local solar entrepreneurs. They are being tested in the sun.

We're really glad to announce that TRAID, an organisation that runs high-end charity shops in the UK, is providing funds towards this project. This will really help us get it off the ground, so any more donations that you provide will have an even greater impact. TRAID do an excellent job recycling clothes in the UK and turning them into great new fashion-wear, which they then sell. The profit they make goes to fund development projects such as this one.

So please donate now so that we can accelerate this project even more!

This is a picture of discarded single use batteries, which are used throughout Africa to power radios and are then abandoned, causing pollution. One of the benefits of our microsolar work is that people can now power their radios using solar chargers, which means no more abandoned batteries.

Nick