B. C. Cuamba1*, M. L. Chenene, and A. Kalu2

1 Energy Research Group, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Eduardo Mondlane University,

Maputo, Mozambique, P. O. Box 257

2 Center for Advanced Water Technology & Energy Systems, Savannah State University, Savannah, GA

31404, USA

Corresponding Author, boaventura. cuamba@uem. mz
Abstract

The lack of electricity and other modern utilities in rural communities imposes an inordinate drudgery on the female population. This fact notwithstanding, women and girls may be lost or alienated customers in an energy for rural development program, unless they are purposefully engaged. To ensure that women are part of future energy planning and engineering workforce in Mozambique, a program for generating the interest of young women and girls in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET) must be instituted in order to break the cultural barriers that have held them back from participating. This correspondence describes a project implemented by Eduardo Mondlane University, with funding support from Engineering Information foundation and USAID, to achieve this goal. Renewable energy training and outreach program was proven to be a catalyst for whetting the interest of young girls in SMET education. A successful Energy institute for girls from our remote rural villages, in which hands on training was used to demonstrate the power of science in solving real life problems familiar to them is described.

1. Introduction

In Mozambique, as in other African and traditional societies, women are yet to attain social and economic parity with men. Traditional societies have carved out roles for women. Women in rural communities bear the greater burden of the family unit. They are the principal providers of the basic needs of the family, and in many cases the only providers. The responsibilities imposed on rural women by the cultural norms of traditional societies inhibit their ability to participate in lucrative and emerging careers that would place them in high standing in the society. Young girls are trained to bare the burden of family rearing instead of pursuing SMET education, which is often the gateway to economic emancipation and high social status. More significantly, the duties expected of them and their mothers (in these patriarchal societies) make young women suffer the consequences of underdevelopment more than other segments of the rural community. They are responsible for fetching water and firewood to makeup for the lack of electricity and other modern utilities.

The lack of electricity and other modern utilities in rural communities therefore imposes an inordinate drudgery on the female population. This fact notwithstanding, women and girls may be lost or alienated customers in an energy for rural development program, unless they are purposefully engaged. To ensure that women are part of future energy planning and engineering

workforce in Mozambique, a program for generating the interest of young women and girls in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET) must be instituted in order to break the cultural barriers that have held them back from participating. This correspondence describes a project implemented by Eduardo Mondlane University to achieve this goal. Renewable energy training and outreach program was proven to be a catalyst for whetting the interest of young girls in SMET education. A successful Energy institute for girls from our remote rural villages, in which hands on training was used to demonstrate the power of science in solving real life problems familiar to them is described.

In order to achieve a larger solar contribution in a higher proportion of the housing stock, a new generation of thermal energy storage systems are needed. These storage systems must be compact, cost-effective, safe, clean and easy to handle. These challenges include the development of new materials and technologies, taking into account a set of boundary conditions for application on a very large scale, at acceptable cost.

Four main types of thermal energy storage technologies can be distinguished: sensible, latent, sorption and thermochemical heat storage. Sensible heat storage systems use the heat capacity of a material. When heat is stored, the temperature of the material increases. The vast majority of systems on the market are of this type and use water for heat storage. Water-based heat storage units cover a very broad range of capacities, from several hundred litres to tens of thousands m3.

For sensible heat storage at medium temperatures, the energy is transferred to a single-phase storage medium; the charging status corresponds to the temperature of the storage material. Present candidate storage materials are concrete, molten salt or pressurised liquid water. Storage systems using molten salt at temperatures between 300°C and 400°C have been integrated into solar thermal power plants and are expected to become operational in 2008.

In latent heat storage systems, thermal energy is stored during the phase change, either melting or evaporation, of a material. Depending on the temperature range, this type of storage is more compact than heat storage in water. Most of the currently used latent heat storage technologies for low temperatures are for storing heat in building structures to improve thermal performance, or in cold storage systems. For medium-temperature storage, nitrate salts are used as the storage materials. Pilot storage units in the 100 kW range are currently operated using solar steam

In sorption heat storage systems, heat is stored in materials using water evaporation. The material can be either a solid (adsorption) or a liquid (absorption). These technologies are still largely in the development phase, although there are some systems on the market. In principle, sorption heat storage densities can be more than four times higher than sensible heat storage in water.

In thermochemical heat storage systems, the heat is stored by splitting a chemical compound into its components. Taking the reaction enthalpy of the compound into consideration, a heat storage density 20 times higher than water could be reached. In practice, however, this would be lower, at around 8 to 10 times higher than water. This thermochemical type of heat storage is still at the research stage, with only a limited number of chemical storage principles having been demonstrated. The materials cur­rently under investigation are all compounds of a salt with water (hydrates). Thermochemical heat storage is likely to provide compact storage solutions for both low and medium temperature heat storage applications.

Fundamental research on new materials for thermal energy storage is essential in order to advance thermal storage with a high energy density. For more compact systems, new materials in the class of thermochemical thermal storage systems need to be developed. New and improved materials are also needed in order to improve existing thermal storage systems, such as systems based on phase-change materials and sorption.

From the total registration received, 26 registrations came from Portuguese competitors and six were effectively submitted. The large majority of the registered competitors were young architects recently graduated, with ages between 20 and 30 years old and organized in teams, five projects from teams and only one from an individual. Most of the competitors had no previous experience in PV while some had already participated in non-PV oriented competitions. From these, three Portuguese finalist projects were analyse in more detail: the winner project, Power Fold, from a young team of architects and designers, one of the honourable mentions, Sun Square, from an industrial designer and the Basic Housing Unit for Urban Natural Hazards from a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers and managers.

The Power Fold project was the most innovative concept presented to the competition and is presented as a dynamic structure that by itself generates space, polarizing the city with renewable electricity production points. This project effectively appropriated the concept of a material that while generating green electricity can develop a wider set of functions and be combined with other materials. Design constraints, specifically mass production and communication were successfully addressed, being this one of the project added values. Despite the teams dynamic and innovation spirit, their core business is to create and had no previous ideas, knowledge or intention to develop the project after the competition. Nevertheless the team responded very positively to the idea of participating in an entrepreneurship course and actually won the entrepreneurship programme prize for best business idea with Power Fold. The team also entered two other competitions, for new products ideas and for new business ideas, having successfully reached the finalist entries in both. The market recognition of the project relevance and possibility to succeed was undoubtedly a motivation for the team to search for further support and to continue the project development. Nevertheless, the fact of being already an entrepreneurial team, as this team owns their own architecture atelier, was a decisive background for responding to the competition and continuing the project development process, as they are more aware of the opportunities and challenges entailed in new business start up. Having a pre-culture on entrepreneurship made new projects assessment a more appealing challenge and contributed to the definition and incentive on new ways of promoting and realizing their goals.

Sun Square concept is based on an autonomous, renewable and ecological multimedia esplanade fed with solar energy, by a structure of PV sunshades, presenting itself as one of the most feasible projects both in terms of structure and PV application. Despite being a very dynamic industrial designer, the market had already deceived this young professional and the idea of no evolution regarding these types of projects was entrained. With no basic ideas on how to develop the project, the designer did not withdraw to the perspectives on an entrepreneurship education, having effectively entered the entrepreneurship course. The idea was also presented to an Energy Agency and with the organizers support the design patent and copyright protection process was initiated. The use of conventional materials, even conventional PV products, allows possible partners and investors to perceive clearly the project’s aim and what might be the processes and economic aspects involved. On the perspective of innovation diffusion/adoption, and in this case, PV materials adoption, the designer is a clear case of success. Confirming is the participation in Lisbon Ideas Challenge second edition, clearly attracted by the technology and within a spirit that invites him to search for innovative integrating possibilities. All these facts allow concluding that the right stimulus from the market and the support from the competition organizers fostered this entrepreneurial individual to develop new skills regarding business conception and encouraged him to become committed with the technology and use it in other projects, fostering dissemination and networks expansion among pairs.

The Basic Housing Unit for Urban Natural Hazards (BHU UNH) presents a project for a self­mountable and mass-producible tent to use in critical situations. Although being designed for urban areas, this project does not respond to the competition’s objective, as it is meant for crisis periods. The authors based their idea on the conjunction of two technologies: a third generation photovoltaic film and an inflatable composite structure with bioclimatic principles. The competitor’s idea is to use organic solar cells that could be printed in the tent’s coating, a still not mature technology that needs detailed analysis when taken into consideration for a project. The BHU NUH team lack of more detailed knowledge regarding this technology made them advance some considerations that, extrapolated from the research field into the commercial sector, may conduct to high expectations, not feasible in the short term and with significant implications in the project feasibility. This team was the most advanced team in the competition in terms of their project development and also the most motivated one to continue developing the tent. The team developed the patent and project protection since the beginning and actively searched for technological support in the various areas. This dynamic spirit can be attributed not only to the team’s leader, but also to the team’s multidisciplinary background. This team was the only to work

with emerging technologies. This fact made them invest in an innovative project, that probably, if the team knew that organic cells were not ready to enter the market, as they thought, would drive them to pursue more presently feasible concepts and create this tent with a different design and using a market available technology. Having already contacted several partners, that could assure the technological support, and the fact that some of the team members had recently embraced new professional projects made them decide not to enter the entrepreneurship programme. Despite the initial positive feed back and the team pro-active initiatives, the market could not respond as effectively as they expected and the project evolution was compromised.

Concluding on architecture/design competitions potential to promote new product development one can affirm that the most likely hypothesis is that these initiatives do foster new product development, as long as the right accompaniment and effective feedback is assured, supporting the evolution and product development process. Portuguese young professionals in the fields of architecture and design present the potential to undertake user as innovators and entrepreneurship attitudes when developing PV urban structures, as long as the right incentives and adequate support is offered. Doing so, the products created will actively dynamize the market, even by interacting with mature companies and raising an innovative and competitive spirit on the market.

The solar thermal industry in Canada has been supported historically by the Federal Government through direct subsidy programs where 25% of the installation costs have been paid for. However until very recently this has not allowed renewable energy to compete with very cheap energy prices. The result has been the vast majority of solar systems being in the single family home and small commercial markets where cost of energy is not the primary driver. According to Natural Resources Canada the average size of commercial solar thermal systems installed in Canada taking part in this program (2007) was only 15 collectors (excluding Mondial’s commercial projects).

Recent Provincial Government programs have provided further incentives, piggybacking directly onto the Federal program to further reduce costs.

Natural gas prices have risen sharply in recent years, making solar thermal competitive with fossil fuel generation for the first time.

The study presented in this paper comprised the following steps: Build a model that represents an optimized single family house in a mild southern European climate (Lisbon was taken as reference); Predict the energy demand profiles for ambient heating, cooling, domestic hot water (DHW), heat needed for domestic appliances, electrical needs for lighting and appliances; Size renewable energy systems such that, on an annual basis, the house presents a zero energy demand and Perform a financial analysis.

2. Heating, cooling and DHW energy demands

This analysis builds on previous work performed for the Passive-On project [4][5]. This 110 m2 single family detached house with four occupants is a passive house with low heating and cooling needs. The house will be comfortable through all year with reduced contribution from active systems for thermal environmental control. The model house was developed using building thermal simulation (the software used is EnergyPlus [6]), optimizing several variables: building orientation, window layout and size, glazing systems and shading devices, insulation, thermal mass and natural ventilation (including nighttime cooling).

In the approach followed in this work all energy demand is converted into electricity. Since space heating, cooling and DHW are going to be supplied by the solar thermal system or a heat pump that runs on electricity.

The tittle of the Workshop was “ Solar Cooling: Technologies and Experiences”. The general aim was to present the situation and possibilities of use of renewable energies in buildings in the residential and tertiary sectors. Some professionals and industry figures were invited to display their skills and last/best projects.

The workshop was focused on solar cooling and the target people for this workshop were technicians and experts on this topic as well as other people interested on this topic.

The workshop presentations were divided in three parts:

• Solar collectors technologies,

• Solar cooling technologies, and

• Installations.

On the first part the participants were high efficiency collector manufacturers. That kind of collectors is the one susceptible to be used on solar cooling applications. On the second part different technologies for absorption chiller machines and evaporative cooling were described. The third block was dedicated to show the experience acquired throughout time using some of the developed installations, reporting results and knowledge acquired.

It was hold 22/May/2008, in Valladolid (Spain), having 34 attendants and a length of de 6 hours.

The potentially significant role of microcredit lending programs to foster sustainable energy and economic development in rural communities has been largely overlooked. It has been estimated

[1] that there are 500 million economically active poor in the world, operating microenterprises and small businesses. Virtually all small businesses in rural Africa, including Mozambique, have no access to any financial services. Also, developmental programs are usually financed from non-sustainable government and external donor sources. A sustainable financing paradigm for the rural poor would be one that focuses on a shift from government and donor based systems to self-sufficient and locally owned and managed microfinance institutions, providing voluntary savings and credit services. Only a locally operated finance system will be fully sensitive to the local economic environment such as planting and harvesting cycles, viable collaterals, and valuable in-kind payments.

An essential task in an energy for sustainable development or rural women empowerment program would be to galvanize an integrated community organizing and development program in order to enhance the end-users’ capacity to pay and to ensure that the any potential client-electric cooperative that serves the community attains a substantial cost recovery on their rural electrification investment. Local NGOs and women groups should be taught the fundamentals of economics and drawing from existing models [1], an economics and financing system workshop reflecting local realities should be developed and delivered to NGOs and local groups. They will then become more equipped to organize culturally responsive and sustainable micro finance institutions in their localities to support micro business enterprises as well as renewable energy consumers necessary for the renewable energy sector to thrive.

A thriving market for renewable energy in Mozambique will depend on more than social amenities such as lighting and community facilities. Furthermore, improvement in the quality of life in the rural communities will be illusive without economic empowerment. Rural areas must be able to harness the emerging renewable technology for productive uses in order to generate incomes to improve their living standards. Hitherto, rural development NGOs in Mozambique have failed to recognize energy as a critical economic determinant. They have equally failed to realize that renewable energy technology supply and service can be a viable sector of the economy in the rural communities where they are critically needed. To jumpstart the capacity building effort for the renewable energy business sector in the rural community, seminars on renewable energy based business development is needed. Emphasis should be given to women participation since they are the primary consumers of energy, and are less likely to flee to the urban areas with their new skills after receiving training. These seminars and the fallouts from it can be counted on to improve their economic well being, with the availability of electricity and solar hot water. Not only would they become vendors of solar energy equipment and service

providers, but they would also be able to run repair shops for the equipment by combining the skills acquired from both technical and business trainings. They would also become more able to develop and run micro economic enterprises and cottage industries in such areas as cosmetology, sewing, fishery, and poultry.

The first solar power plant was planned to be constructed in Iran in Yazd province. This project was defined according to the Iranian Policy for renewable technology deployment. Therefore, a 17MW solar power plant was planned. The project started in 2007 and it is an ISCC (Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System) solar power plant combined with a conventional fossil driven power plant. Yazd solar power plant specifications were presented in the table 3 [6].

Other solar power plant projects are not defined yet. By the way, Iran Energy Outlook assumed approximately 0.1% solar power plant share in 2025 Iran Energy Portfolio. Iran Energy Outlook declares that the solar power plant share should receive to about 40MW in 2025. This prediction was based on Iran solar energy potential and drastic increasing national electricity demand. The long term, mid term and near term planning for solar power systems is based on this objective [6].

2. Conclusion

Obviously, the predictions show that Iran electricity demand will increase dramatically in near future. This trend is a result of population growth and also rural areas development in Iran. On the other hand, the country will have some new factories which will require electricity. Figure 5 shows 2050 Iran electricity demand predicted by MED CSP scenario. The trend illustrates a significant rise which has to cover by installing new power plants. For covering this trend by conventional power plants the entire fossil fuels which are exported now, will utilize. Iran economy development has a deep relationship with oil export. Increasing domestic energy demand will result in the export decrease.

According to the current trends, the fossil resources will just cover domestic energy demand in next 10 years. Thus generating electricity by other resources like renewable energy is inevitable. On the other hand, Iran has a great potential for renewable energy like wind energy, hydro energy, geothermal energy and especially solar energy. Due to this challenge, Iran policy makers in energy sector decide to implement solar power plants. The first step was installing pilot power plants. And the next step is CSP technology deployment by different incentives. Figure 6 shows the future share of different power plants in electricity generation.

However, the high installation cost of solar power plant is still a serious challenge against CSP technology development and deployment. This obstacle will be omitted by mass production of CSP equipments and also increasing cost of fossil fuels. Figure 7 is a prediction of Iran energy cost of different power plants. The graph shows that energy cost of renewable technologies will decrease drastically in 2050.

References

[1] German Aerospace Center (2005), Concentrating Solar Power for the Mediterranean Region(MED CSP), DLR, Stuttgart

[2] Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (2007), Research Institute for Sustainable Energy Website, Australia

[3] Shiraz University Technical Campus (2003), Shiraz Power Plant Conceptual Design, Iran

[4] Iran Renewable organization (2007), Taleghan Conceptual Design, Iran

[5] Fichtner Solar GmbH (2007), First Solar Power Plant in Yazd, Iran

[6] MAPNA Cooperation (2007), Yazd Solar Power Plant Website, Iran

[7] Power Ministry of Iran (2005), Iran Energy Balance Repot, Iran

Strong and constant commitment by the promoters and the local politicians is needed.

Besides that, the Administration, supported by technical experts, should carry out a careful initial assessment of the local situation, including several factors:

• which is the composition of the building stock, in terms of typology of use, size, public/private, ownership, new/refurbished, etc.?

• is the heat consumption (in particular, the domestic hot water demand) in the area relevant?

• basing on the above information, do you estimate a large impact of the STO?

• are there enough technology suppliers available in the area?

• are there enough certified products in the market (e. g. solar collectors) and/or test institutes ready for delivering certifications in reasonable terms?

• does your Administration (Municipality, Province, Region, etc.) have the right competencies to assure that the STOs will be legally valid and operating?

• will the STO be immediately operating, with no needs for waiting application rules or being implemented in other local tools (e. g. the building code)?

• are there other ordinances already operating? If this is the case, is the new STO consistent with the previous regulations?

• is the internal staff of your Administration enough to manage the STO?

• are there any subsidies available for solar thermal?

• is a certification scheme for planners and/or installers of solar thermal operating in your Administration/Country?

2.1.1 Birth: cooperation among actors

A key factor for developing an effective STO is to promote networking and cooperation among the main actors:

• involve main stakeholders, before the STO be developed, by means of hearings (building companies, consumer association, NGOs, etc.)

• promote cooperation between actors (e. g. building companies and solar thermal industry or other RES-heat technologies providers) through platforms, workshops, etc.

• for Municipalities and Provinces: involve more high level Administrations (e. g. Regions) for promotion, advertisement, development of common tools, replication

• for Regions:

1. communication, pushing and checking towards Municipalities to have the STO applied

2. foresee compensation measures and/or fees for Municipalities which apply/do not apply the STO

3. central training of Municipality personnel and development of calculation tools

4. centralise other flanking measures (e. g. information campaign)

• Regarding the roles foreseen for the different actors:

• they should be very clear and separate

• an exhaustive and constant monitoring of the whole process is needed, in order to improve the STO through feedback signals

• managing and monitoring of the STO should be carried out by an external body (e. g. Energy Agency)

After acquiring the proper experience on lab kits students are ready for more complicated and creative work (Fig.15). One of the authors has a positive experience of teaching students of Oregon Institute of Technology using small scale real photo-thermal stationary concentrator created at University of Oregon. At the same time it should be remarked that teaching during a research project is time consuming activity and can be used in framework of special projects. It is better to involve students in such research projects after training them on the developed lab equipment.

Educational activity on solar energy at universities and schools is very important for popularization of active using solar energy and for training high qualified professionals and for people of all levels and ages from politicians to consumers.

Value and advantages of developed lab equipment are the next:

• Good publicity among young generation,

• Clear demonstrations of variety solar cells, solar modules, fuel cells, elecrolyzers, solar concentrators, etc.,

• Producing data for evaluation of system elements, defining component parameters, and studying how the systems work,

• Enabling ray tracing for different concentrating configurations,

• Versatile using for laboratory work in a variety of courses at the different levels,

• Simplicity to use and capability of a wide variety of research activities of student and postgraduate students,

• Easiness to modify lab equipment on consumer requests,

• Interactive demonstration how GIS systems work and how they can help in estimating of solar radiation.

References

[1] A. Smirnov, I. Tyukhov (2007) Simulating of Sun’s path for shadow analysis of solar buildings, Northsun 2007, 11th International Conference on Solar Energy at High Latitudes, CD, 4 pages.

[2] I. Tyukhov, M. Schakhramanyan, D. Strebkov, S. Mazanov, F. Vignola Combined solar PV and Earth space monitoring technology for educational and research purposes Proceedings Solar 2008, American Solar Energy Society Conf., San Diego, CA. (2008).

[3] I. Tyukhov, F. Vignola Discussion of PV Lab Equipment and Photovoltaic Systems for Teaching the Science of Photovoltaics. SOLAR 2007, Proceedings of the 36th ASES Annual Conference, July 7-12, 2007, Cleveland, Ohio. ISBN: 0-89553-179-8. Proceedings of the Solar 2007, Vol. 2, American Solar Energy Society Conf., pages 751-758.