N. Hanson[20] * and B. Newhouse1
1 Peace Corps Cape Verde, 373 Prainha, Praia, Ilha de Santiago, Republic of Cape Verde
* Corresponding Author, nfhanson@gmail. com

Abstract

A simple solar still project was introduced into the curriculum of a secondary technical school, [Escola Tecnica — Grao Duque Henri] in Cape Verde, to enhance the education quality and test economical, green solutions to the country’s water supply problems. While Cape Verde has modern educational facilities, teaching methods rarely focus on the start to finish implementation of ecological projects and encouraging student creativity. While the still produced a maximum of just 2L/day, an output insufficient for a person’s daily water needs, the project has shown students and faculty the advantages of an environmentally sustainable project. Students additionally researched an improved solar still design as part of their lesson plan. Consequent interest in solar fuelled projects led to student involvement in the construction of solar box cookers, which harness the sun’s rays to cook food. The completion of the solar still pilot project has inspired Cape Verdeans to research additional sustainable projects and to expand the practical applications of their education. The successful implementations of environmental projects that have utility motivate students and teachers to learn.

Keywords: capacity building, solar still, environmental projects, development

water sources, and pricey desalination, Cape Verde’s ample access to sun and salt water makes it ideal for solar still implementation.

During the academic year of 2007/2008, a solar still prototype was designed and implemented in classes at Escola Tecnica — Grao Duque Henri [one of the four Secondary Technical Schools in Cape Verde], to teach students and colleagues about the potential to produce potable water from seawater using only solar energy. The design was based on Farrington Daniels book on Direct Use of the Sun’s Energy.4 The second trimester focused more on educating the students on solar distillation and on designing an improved model to achieve higher production rates. A new solar still was designed, using cascading steps and constructed during the 3rd trimester of the school year.

Approximately eight years ago, four Secondary Technical schools were built to educate technicians, accountants, and labourers, to better prepare students for higher education and the growing economy. Within two years after completion, Escola Tecnica — Grao Duque Henri was operating at capacity.

Implementation of the solar still project at the Escola Tecnica in Santa Catarina increased the students’ knowledge of solar energy and their motivation to learn. It also provided technical skills to prepare graduating students for potential job opportunities. The three of the most challenging subjects are Mathematics, Portuguese, and Physics. Understanding in these subjects can be improved by integrating environmental projects that make it fun to learn and that have tangible results.

In the sections to follow, the solar still prototype and its integration into the curriculum through practical labs will be presented along with the improved solar still specifications. Further on we will describe how the solar still project was disseminated into other classes. The objectives are to improve the students’ knowledge of the benefits of solar energy and to increase their interest in related academic subjects such as physics and math and to test solar still designs. The execution of the solar still project at the school encountered many successes and obstacles. Methods to resolve these obstacles will be presented as well. [21]

Fig. 1. Solar still prototype before alterations

The school administration approved the project only as an extra-curricular activity. The solar still prototype was introduced in the 11th grade practical labs during the first trimester of the 07-08 academic year, in collaboration with practical lab professors. Each of the four 11th grade classes — approximately 22 students each — received a detailed lesson on the science of solar distillation and a copy of the prototype proposal. To reinforce comprehension, each student was asked to draw the still plans prior to construction. Throughout the 1st trimester the students constructed the solar still shown in figures 1 & 2. At the beginning of each phase of construction, students were taught the relevant technical and theoretical aspect of still design; for example: sketches and take-offs of the basin formwork and the reinforcing metal mesh, calculations for volumes of concrete necessary to pour the still, construction details of the collection trough and interface with the formwork. For ease of construction, groups of five to six students were rotated through each phase of still construction.

The cost for the complete solar still prototype was 18,500 CVE (Cape Verdean Escudos) [~245USD, at the exchange rate of 75 Escudos to 1 Dollar]. Daily operating costs are virtually zero. The still needs no monitoring except for the daily removal of fresh water, cleaning of the glass, and weekly replenishment of sea water in the reservoir.

The project started with the training needs analysis. The needs analysis aim was to get understanding of the existing situation of the in-service training in the field of renewable energy domain at European level, by identifying:

• The teachers’ interest and perception on the renewable energy domain;

• The current situation concerning the renewable energy topic in curricula in high schools at different

levels of the educational system, i. e., micro level — that is the level of didactic situations at classroom level, mezzo-level — that is the level of school and the community where the school functions, macro level — that is the level of curricula at national level;

• The teachers’ willingness to improve their knowledge in the domain of sustainable energy subjects

and didactics of the discipline. The first year of the project was dedicated to this analysis.

The needs analysis has been performed based on a questionnaire developed in partnership and addressed to teaching staff at pre-university level from different countries, teaching different disciplines. A total of 210 teachers responded to the questionnaire from the participating countries: Greece (29 respondents), Germany (8 respondents), Belgium (8 respondents), Italy (11 respondents), Turkey (60 respondents), Poland (50 respondents), Romania (44 respondents). The respondents’ distribution was the following: 129 females, 81 males; 39.5 average age; 14.8 average years of activity; Teaching subjects: Humanities (languages & social sciences): 47 respondents; Mathematics and/or computer sciences: 90 respondents; Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Geography): 25 respondents; Technical disciplines (engineers): 48 respondents.

The questionnaire comprised 32 statements to test the opinion of the teaching staff, focusing on: general appreciation of the utility of renewable energy as teaching subject; the existing teachers’

competencies necessary to teach the period of this analysis subject; the place of the subject in the curriculum; teachers’ willingness to improve their knowledge; information sources accessed by the teachers; appreciation of the interest related to specific study chapters. Each statement was assessed using the scale: strongly agree (4p) / agree (3p); disagree (2p) / strongly disagree (1p); not able to answer (n). The opinion of the teachers’ regarding the Sustainable energy domain is analyzed considering their answers to the groups of questions. Only the main findings are presented in this paper, as considered important for further interpretations of the project activities and results.

a. General appreciation of the domain

The group of questions aimed to assess the general appreciation of the subject of renewable energy addressed the teachers’ perception of their own appreciation, of their students’ and of the community appreciation of this subject. The teachers declared a good appreciation, but considering the students’ and community’s ones, there were recorded many non-answers.

This finding leaded to the conclusion that the subject of renewable energy is not a subject of public debate in schools at a large scale.

Therra is an EU-project funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe program. Its aim is to develop and disseminate a methodology for monitoring the total amount of renewable heat in the EU. Currently the definition of renewable heat is settled (e. g. heat pumps or waste), a major part of the renewable heat production (e. g. wood-stoves and solar collectors) is not directly measured and statistics for renewable heat vary per EU-country. The project is lead by SenterNovem from the Netherlands and Ademe (France), Adene (Portugal), AEA (Austria), BEA (Germany), CRES (Greece) and Kape (Poland) are participating in the project.

The aim of the ThERRA-project is to develop and disseminate a methodology for monitoring the total amount of renewable heat produced in the EU. The goal is that this methodology is acceptable for the key-actors in the EU and the participating countries and that it is tested in seven typical EU- countries.

The ThERRA-project runs from 2006 until the end of 2008. Most of the work is finished. The main results are an overview of the in the participating countries, an overview of monitoring projects and show cases, a draft methodology and a bench mark of the draft methodology. All results can be found at www. therra. info [5].

C. D. A. Porteous and J. W. Fung

Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow G3 6RQ, UK

email : c. porteous@gsa. ac. uk

Abstract

This paper examines the evidence of four housing case studies in Glasgow, two with specific passive solar features and two without; and also makes some reference to further non-solar housing in the city. The aim is twofold: firstly to ascertain if there is an apparent association between sunlight/energy-efficiency attributes and other physical environmental indicators such as temperature (comfort) CO2 and humidity (air quality and risk of mould or dust mite propagation); secondly to do the same in relation to perceived stress, positive and negative affectivity, and health/wellbeing. Associations are apparent comparing two tower blocks (one solar, one non-solar) in the same urban context, but are less clear for the two medium rise case studies even though respective urban contexts are again similar. The solar tower block also had the lowest values for CO2 in a total set of twelve case studies; and there was an apparent trend for access to sunlight to be reflected in lower perceived stress and higher positive affectivity. The paper concludes that this aspect of solar design deserves further in­depth study.

Keywords: Passive solar; sunspaces; air quality; humidity; stress, affectivity, well­being.

1. Introduction

This study, focuses on high-rise and medium-rise housing in urban locations in Glasgow, and relates to PhD work with a larger set, including low-rise examples, which has been carried out under the supervision of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU). In the last century and a half sustainability for social housing has moved from an almost exclusively public health agenda, through one motivated almost solely by numbers built and cost, and now to one where energy efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions have become the core priority — as long as costs can be contained within bounds deemed fit by politicians of course. However, health and well-being have also returned as crucial issues, perhaps driven in particular by the seemingly relentless rise in incidence of asthma and resurgence of fuel poverty.

Interestingly, a parallel resurgence has been the recent research into the health benefits of sunlight. Just over 130 years ago, research demonstrated the disinfectant properties of sunlight through glass (blue part of visible spectrum passes through glass) [1], which was therefore, very relevant for buildings. Such benefits were confirmed during WW2 when the increase in respiratory infections in wards where windows had sunshine blocked (blast barriers in wartime) was attributed to bacteria (haemolytic streptococci) in dust — direct sunlight had strongest bactericidal effect, but strong diffuse light still capable of killing bacteria [2]. In the last few years, hospital-based research on postoperative medication use has explored the psychosomatic effect of sunlight on patients undergoing spinal surgery [3]; building on work ten and twelve years ago that respectively found an evident link between

sunshine indoors and recovery from heart attacks and an equivalent link to recovery from severe non-seasonal depression [4, 5].

Hence, the main agenda of this paper is to examine the psychosocial issues of perceived stress and positive and negative affectivity related to solar attributes of housing, together with physical environmental issues — in particular, indoor air quality and humidity, the latter with regard to dust mite propagation. Health/well-being is also measured via perceived frequency of ailments.

Helmut F. O. MOller1* and Kamugisha Byabato2

1 Chair of Environmental Architecture, Dortmund University of Technology,
Baroper Str. 301, D-44227 Dortmund, Germany
2 Department of Architecture, Ardhi University, P. O. Box 35176, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
* Corresponding author: helmut. mueller@tu-dortmund. de

Abstract

PREA is a joint project between four European Universities and three African Universities as well as the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), an international NGO that promotes renewable energy. The aim of PREA is to reduce poverty by influencing energy policy and regulations in Africa, through training and capacity-building of energy professionals, regulators, and academics as well as policy — and decision-makers to enhance their skills in implementing Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) and Energy Efficiency (EE) in buildings. There are involved three subsaharan African countries, namely South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Training will be offered through Workshops and a Masters Degree Course in Integration of Renewable Energy in Buildings (IREB), both made to suit local requirements in climate, economic and cultural conditions and allowing for exchange and further training opportunities. keywords: Africa, renewable energies, energy efficient buildings, workshops, Masters Degree Courses

1. Introduction

Africa is the only continent on this planet that sits squarely on the equator and where both the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn pass through its land mass. Thus Africa is mostly tropical but local microclimate in various parts it are modified by other factors such as relief and proximity to natural features such as mountain ranges and big water masses. Africa boasts of different forms of natural vegetation raging from dense tropical rain forests through grasslands to scrubland and deserts. The biggest desert in Africa is the Sahara. All these features give Africa a unique position in potential on the world renewable energy map.

It has 95% of the world’s best sunshine and a huge potential of hydro, wind, bio and geothermal energies.

However, despite the fact that on one hand the African continent is endowed with vast resources of renewable energies (RE), but on the other hand, the energy situation in most African countries is desperate.

For example in Uganda and Tanzania less than 10% of the total population has access to electricity at all. The main energy source is biomass, usually in the form of firewood, or charcoal. For the few urban and very few rural areas that are connected to electricity grid, supply failure resulting in blackouts and brownouts is a frequent and increasingly regular phenomenon.

There is, therefore, an urgent need to address RE and energy efficiency (EE) in order to improve the energy situation in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way.

One starting point to implementing RE and EE strategies in Africa is to focus on energy use in buildings, as the built environment contributes significantly to energy waste and pollution.

To launch SAC systems on a wider scale and accelerate their market introduction, it is necessary to promote and disseminate gained experiences and knowledge throughout Europe. Especially in southern Europe, given high cooling demands, SAC systems offer environmentally friendly and highly efficient solutions.

Dissemination materials like flyers, posters, brochures and a best-practice catalogue offer helpful information on SAC and help to transfer project results on a national and European level, to create public awareness and to sensitize decision makers and professionals.

The project flyer and a project poster in English language were developed by the consortium and translated into all national project languages and are available at the web-page of the project. The project flyer was, for example, distributed by REHVA to all (> 1,000) participants to their Clima 2007 Congress, Helsinki, June 2007, and the project poster was displayed at REHVA’s desk in the Congress venue entrance hall.

In each participating country, different SOLAIR campaigns will be developed and carried out to advertise goals and tools of the project. Such activities may also include special press work, networking, round-table seminars with crucial regional actors and other forms of co-operation.

In each of the participating countries, several events will be installed targeting policy makers, European lobbying associations, decision makers and multipliers.

Half-day workshops will serve as information platforms for national decision makers and multipliers concerning the national status of small and medium-sized SAC appliances and recent project results.

A thematic workshop at a European level will address European lobbying associations and existing networks. The main objective is to introduce the audience to state of the art, potential and future perspectives of SAC systems. Possible financial and technological barriers are being tackled as well.

In order to give support to the partners in these activities, roadmaps were developed by Ambiente Italia and EVE. These roadmaps contain practical tools for implementing local campaigns and evaluating their impact (concepts for motivation events, exemplary press release, formats of technical documents for local campaigns, checklists, technical assessments as well as templates for evaluation of campaign activities and report on motivation events).

Several information requests about the technology and the project have reached the consortium through the project website, thus indicating the effectiveness of these dissemination and promotion tools as well as the increasing interest on the solar cooling topics.

Renewable Energy for the Empowerment of Mozambique Women and Girls (REEMWaG) was a composite project consisting of a community outreach development, technology transfer, and training and capacity building. Project activities were community driven and laid emphasis on the inclusion of women and girls both in decision making and project implementation. Details of specific project activities are given below.

1.1. Technology Transfer Activities

The objective of this activity was to increase access to modern technology for the dwellers of the rural community. It will be the beginning of the transformation of the rural community through the use of renewable energy. A village power unit consisting of photovoltaics (PV) with a generator backup was designed and installed in a selected village. The system was sized to provide power for meaningful community development activities, including providing power to a multifunction community center and computer literacy and adult education facilities. The choice of village power approach (as compared to distributed/stand alone systems) in introducing PV technology in the community was based on economic and access considerations. The integrated system serves a larger population more than would sprinkled systems available to only the few that can afford to purchase the system. In addition to supporting community facilities and utilities, the village power also provides a battery charging station for residential lighting systems. Thus proprietary, reliable solar powered rechargeable lanterns and small battery-only systems would provide household lighting, while shared facilities such as audio/video technology enable rural women to learn and work in an affordable developmentally-oriented environment.

The technology transfer activity also involved the installation of a computer laboratory for teaching rural young women and girls computer science and information technology. This laboratory provides a head start to an effort to bring the rural community in to the information age. It has paved the way for establishing a solar-powered internet-connected community center in the village. As funds become available the computer laboratory will be expanded to include more terminals, digital camera, graphic printers, a full suite graphics and video creativity software and will be integrated with other audiovisual facility of the community center, which include TV, VCR, camcorder, and satellite radio receiver. An expansion of the technology in the community center will include a satellite telephone with a special data connection that will provide a direct link to the worldwide Web for the village, which will provide full email services, basic Web connection, and global telephone access.

A larger number of other European Technology Platforms exists, each with its own vision paper and independent Strategic Research Agenda. One topic is common to most of these papers, that in 50 years renewable energy will be the main source of energy and that the efficient use of energy will become more and more important.

The important role of solar thermal energy is well accepted. New, more complex system approaches have to be developed, which combine solar thermal with storage systems — hot and cold — and which enable the combination of:

• Collector and storage unit

• Collector and heat pump

• Heat and electricity (PVT collector)

• Air collectors for heating and cooling

Figures 4, 5 and 6 show some sketches or cross-sections of such systems. Figure 4 shows 2 schematic diagrams of a collector which is integrated into a wall. On the left is a simple system combined with a storage material (such as a phase change material), where heat is transferred to the inner wall and stored there at a low temperature level for heating the room. On the right, a slightly more complex system is shown with additional integration of a small heat pump using the outside collector as a low — temperature heat source or for cooling. Again the system is combined with heat storage materials.

Figure 5 shows a cross-section through a hybrid solar collector, where the collector is used in combination with a heat pump again. First demonstrations of such systems are now running.

Figure 6 finally shows a cross-section through a PVT collector, which produces both low-temperature heat and electricity. One advantage of such systems is the saving of area on the roof. Ideally the PV efficiency is even improved in summer due to the lower temperature of the solar cells. Low- temperature heat can be generated and used for heating or preheating of water. Again here first demonstration systems are being tested and show interesting results.

■ Concepts

^ Direct

— Large solar collector, preferrably in the facade

— Storage size of some days, preferrably integrated into construction

r Indirect

— Solar collector as low temperature heat source

— High efficient small heat pump (goal: COP up to 10)

— Possibly PV-T

— Possible: summer cooling

Figure 4: Cross-section of two variations of wall-integrated collector-storage systems.

Figure 6: Cross-section of a PVT

collector producing electricity and heat.

Another important topic is the integration of solar buildings into the energy supply grid. In most cases, even a so-called 100% solar house will have a connection with the grid for security reasons. This gives the possibility to optimise and minimise the whole energy demand of a village or even a city.

This topic is well known from electricity grids under the headings of smart metering and smart grids. In future, the heating and cooling demand of buildings as well as the thermal storage capacity of the building can be integrated into the total energy management system. There is a high potential for energy conservation and reduction of peak loads, which are the most expensive energy demands. Figure 7 shows a diagram of a future energy supply system with many distributed energy sources, users and integrated storage systems for electricity, heating and cooling.

10 kV

the operating costs

Figure 7: Energy management in local grids.

6. Summary

The SRA describes the research that is essential to expand the application field of solar thermal technologies, so that 50% of the thermal heat demand in the EU can be met in the long term. To reach this goal, a new generation of solar thermal technology needs to be developed for new application areas. Major new applications are: solar combined systems for domestic hot water and space heating using compact seasonal storage units, higher-temperature collectors for industrial applications, and solar cooling. The main research challenges are to develop compact long-term efficient heat storage systems and to develop cheaper materials for solar systems. In addition, a system approach which combines efficient use of energy with integration of solar thermal and other renewable resources is needed. On the long term. a decentralised approaches with many distributed energy sources connected by a smart grid could be the only solution for a sustainable energy supply of the whole world.

References:

SRA Solar heating and cooling for a sustainable energy future in Europe www. esttp. org

www. ectp. org

www. smartgrids .eu

Most new products developed and introduced in the market by manufacturers are market flops, being the major reason for this the poor understanding of users’ needs in manufacturers’ innovations (Von Hippel, 2006). This fact outlines the importance that user innovations have and raises the question on how should users be incentive to innovate.

Users as innovators tend to develop products to face their own particular needs, not concerned with sales or profits. Manufacturers prefer to focus on products that address larger markets and benefit from more certain sales and profits. The association with users as innovators allows manufacturers not to concern about product development, but on replication of products that users have already proven to be useful and to fulfil market needs. Nevertheless one of the facts that are hindering users as innovators and manufacturers relations is property rights lack of clear definition. Within this sense, free revealing assumes a great importance in managing user manufacturer relations and for this policies that protect and enhance users as innovators property rights and promote their interactions and partnership seeking with manufacturers should be promoted. Also, manufacturers’ greater advantage in involving users should be levelled through R&D subsidies dedicated to users as innovator, while manufacturers can improve users as innovators contact through toolkits provision, a valuable tool in diminishing the gap between conceptual ideas and feasible markets ones. Toolkits provision assures coordination and feasibility, as the knowledge of the production process can contribute to optimize and increase efficiency in the new product development process.

Regarding users as innovators and investors relations for new entrepreneurial adventures, misunderstanding and unbalanced interests from both sides, often hinder their relations. Unperceived advantages that can arise in both sides of the partnership, mainly due to lack of common knowledge bases and trust, may hinder the development of market feasible products. The creation of an inter-agent that comprehends and interacts within both sides is a feasible approach to reach equilibrium and comprehensive negotiations. These knowledge managers are privileged communicators both with innovators and investors and, the creation of such an image would allow the definition of strategic orientation towards innovations market approach, fostering the cooperation between creators and investors.

The set of a coherent incentive strategy, based on adequate financial incentives is the essential pillar to foster the development of a new market, such as the PV-NBS market. The development of a new urban furniture market, which fosters entrepreneurial attitudes and the emergence of new business concepts can increase and qualify the Portuguese PV market, changing its conventional role in the international market, from technology receiver to new products developer and importer. Financial incentives intent is to foster the development of markets which segments proves more interest to each country, according to the expected outcomes and considering the added value each market presents, beyond the pure and more short timing economic view. The existence of a potential for PV-based urban-scale product development in Portugal, originated in users enhances the need to develop policies, such as adequate tariffs to trigger the development of a PV-based urban-scale product market. This outcome, and the promotion of such a market devoted to promote users as innovators adoption and integration of innovative materials, making use of RES technologies, should also focus on capacity building strategies that enable them to enroll in new product development. The type of PV policies adopted in each country has a direct impact on the promotion and foster of new ideas, investments and products. If the strategy is well defined and there are clear incentives, the market has a positive attitude and the more likely is that new actors are attracted and involved in the deployment of such a technology.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Baldwin, Carliss, Hienerth, Christoph, and Von Hippel, Eric. (2005). “How user innovations become commercial products: a theoretical investigation and case study”; Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management.

• Caree, M.; Thurik, R. (2003). The Impact of Entrepreneurship on Economic Growth. Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research, 437-467. Academic Publishers.

• Hienerth, Cristoph. (2004) The Commercialization of User Innovations: the Development of the Rodeo Kayak Industry. Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Vienna. Austria.

• Lordkipanidze, M.; Brezet. H.; Backman, M. (2004). The entrepreneurship factor in sustainable tourism development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 13, 787-798

• Nasar, Jack. (1999) Design by Competition — Making Design Competition Work. Cambridge University Press. New York.

• Rodrigues, M. (2004). 1st Lisbon Ideas Challenge — Urban Design with. IN+/IST.

• Rodrigues, M. (2006) National Position Paper and Action Plan from Portugal. PV Policy Group (provided by Maria Joao Rodrigues)

• Von Hippel, Eric. (2004). Democratizing Innovation: The evolving phenomenon of user innovation, MIT Press. Massachusetts. United States of America. http://mitpress. mit. edu

• Von Hippel, Eric (2006). Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press. Massachusetts. United States of America. http://mitpress. mit. edu

Mondial Energy Inc. was founded in 2004 as a financial intermediary. Mondial’s role is to contract with the building owner to sell them renewable energy over a long term contract period, concentrating initially on solar thermal energy. Mondial then purchases a system from a design — build supplier to be installed on the customer’s roof. Mondial’s role is to provide the contracting and financing only, concentrating on projects that generate return on investment to satisfy commercial capital rates of return. Mondial then accesses financial markets for investors interested in renewable energy assets with predictable rates of return.

One significant key to the business model is scalability; provided a renewable energy system can meet investment hurdles, the system’s value is only typically limited by the project’s ability to use the energy. Thus an entire portfolio of buildings, or a solar thermal power plant, fit the model as well as a single building installation.