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The idea of isolated third world communities generating their own electricity from renewable sources is a no-brainer and giving to such charities is surely worthwhile? Before you give your hard earned cash away, in an ideological green frenzy, do your research. Even more importantly than small scale renewable technologies in the western world – the chosen technical solution for these struggling communities needs to be productive and cost effective.
The Koru foundation works on a world wide-basis and has a web page devoted to its projects ranging from micro hydro projects in Peru to wind energy projects in Nepal. A board of trustees guides the organisation and is drawn from the renewables industry, the international development and the ecology and educational sectors.
There are some rather more questionable not for profit organisations and charities out there. The You Tube video below promotes small scale wind energy for Rowanda villages. It is noted however that the promoter seems completely tied to one technology – wind energy and one wind turbine manufacturer. The wind turbine design looks suspiciously ineffective with numerous small blades and the manufacturer website comment that ‘2 or 3 bladed propeller type wind turbine design is kind of world war II aircraft — slow speed and less powerful’. This information is untrue as is well recognised in the industry. Wikipedia gives a good explanation:
‘Wind turbines developed over the last 50 years have almost universally used either two or three blades. Aerodynamic efficiency increases with number of blades but with diminishing return. Increasing the number of blades from one to two yields a six percent increase in aerodynamic efficiency, whereas increasing the blade count from two to three yields only an additional three percent in efficiency. Further increasing the blade count yields minimal improvements in aerodynamic efficiency and sacrifices too much in blade stiffness as the blades become thinner.”
2 or 3 blades provides the optimum energy capture for most turbines in most locations. If a 2 or 3 bladed machine does not work you may be better off looking at other technologies such as solar energy.
Koru looks like a much more credible organisation due to its website explanation about it’s structure, projects and values, but it also has some credible wind energy companies supporting it such as Airtricity. Practical Action also looks like a good charity. If people know of any others – please add them in a comment.
CharlieO
February 11th, 2009
I spoke to the development director at the Koru Foundation the other week. Not only is he a very helpful chap, but I can vouch for them as a reputable charity for what it’s worth.
Their office is just down the road from where I live in Brighton, I think there are just two full-time members of the Koru team now, and they sit within the offices of Searoc a marine renewable energy consultancy, so the guys are surrounded almost entirely by engineers who are specialists in various aspects of renewable energy at industry level.
As somebody with no expertise who’s trying to forge a career in clean-tech/renewables, it surprises me that there aren’t more charities similar to the Koru Foundation.
Do you have any tips for enthusiastic young people like myself looking to acquire skills relevant to the industry>? Good courses, training programmes, or anything similar?
Many thanks in advance,
Charlie.
Vicky Portwain
February 12th, 2009
Hi Charlie
People in the renewable energy industry come from all kinds of backgrounds from town planning (like me), to engineers, foresters, environmental scientists and ecologists.
CREST at Loughborough University http://www.lboro.ac.uk/crest/ has a very good reputation for its renewable energy courses and it is going to run a short wind energy summer school in July 09.
The best way of getting into the industry is however to get some work experience. The British Wind Energy Association is the trade industry for the wind, wave a tidal sectors in the UK (it is currently thinking about changing its name to reflect the wave and tidal elements). BWEA has a jobs page and hosts events throughout the year, the main one being the annual conference and exhibition – http://www.bwea.com/events/index.html. The tickets for the conference are expensive however you can just by a ticket for the exhibition and have a chat with all the people on the different exhibition stands – you may learn more this way than going into the conference and it is a good networking opportunity.
I hope this helps.
Vicky
CharlieO
February 15th, 2009
That’s all super helpful, many thanks for your prompt and thorough response Vicky