Lets not count our chickens until they're hatched

Hey guys,
We are left with the big Monday. Promoting and, as pasi said, ''selling'' our product to customers [attendees].
We will have a good opportunity to unveil the long awaited Solar Generator that could address the problems of remote communities.
Hope we will make it so special that we may run out of ''Order Forms''...huh.
Lets make the presentation slides, and comment each other in GoogleDocs.
We havent yet crossed the finishing line - lets not count our chickens until they are hatched.

Last run before the finish line...

So it seems like that soon this long project comes to an end.
But at the same time I feel that due to the fact that the project has been very inspiring, I would gladly like take our concept further and develope the "phase2"...

It is going to be very interesting to hear that what is the feedback from our project going to be; will people understand it, are they gonna like it or are they going to think it is not feasible?

So we have to put some effort on those presentation slides and really "sell" OUR product!

Comments on Report

We have left about a week for the Final Critique session, and two days for Report submission.
What feelings did we get from the feedbacks/comments?
Have we got the necessary skills/Have we met our expectations at the beginning of the semester? I feel that I got something suitable to work in a group, which demands a continous attention until its end.
I was thinking about an internal comment session, preferably before Monday.
That may help for our personal developement.
By doing so, we can also train ourselves for the final presentation.
Share your idea...

Participatory methods in practice

The work being done by Suomen Latu in Nepal, as presented in the last lecture, is a good example that shows the benefits of participatory methods.

As it was often highlighted throughout the various lectures in the SGT courses, involving the native people in the planning & implementation processes plays a vital role in the successful execution of any development project.

Obviously, most development projects (during their inception phase) are planned to take into account the local people but a significant number of them somehow fail to put into practice this crucial part during the actual work on the ground.

In the case of our project, if NSN decides to deploy solar-driven Village Connection solution in the near future, it’s highly important to gather as much information as possible from the villagers living in different parts of the world (wherever NSN offers its system) about their requirements.

Each community will have its priority needs. So, developing a host of additional solutions based on experiences and allowing the villagers to choose the service that most fulfills their urgent need may be one approach to make sure that the service provided is of practical benefit to the community.

Lectures 19.4. & 12.4

The lecture on Monday 19.4 was very interesting concerning about our project due to couple of reasons;
- how will local community be taken into consideration / participate already in the planning phase of the project
- how will the project will influence on the local people, entrepreneurs
- what will happen when the project ends? Will the project still continue after the project personel leave?
My personal critique about the Nepal project is still that use of frase "eco-tourism" is used particulary for the marketing purposed. When project will focus on raising the areas tourism capasity, the focus should be on that how the groth of tourism is done sustainable manners...

Lecture 12.4
I really hope that all of the group members have time to go thru the lecture slides before our presentation. We must focus in our presentation what is our target group, what it is we trying to sell for the audience, what is the outlook of presentation etc.

Prototype building

Here are a few pictures from the lab building where we have been testing the prototype.

Kathmandu Valley Cultural Trail, A good model for EcoNet

A typical project mobilizing the local people, Kathmandu Valley Cultural Trail, can be seen as a good model. The involvement of the local people in any project raises awareness, and makes the project more sustainable. Specially if a project creates economical links/ties to local enterpreuners. The value of a project for a society is measured by the way it hits its target within a specific time. Any implemented project may have, an astonishing result, in the long term, but for remote communities what matters is its short term impacts, at least to some members of them.
Innovative Solar Power for Remote Communities project could be made more sustainable by creating that Economic link, what we were refering as Secondary Services. The link could be created by the interests of local Telecom operators to create awareness about their network and , but NSN has a good position to suggest it for them.
If the its possible to integrate the Secondary services into a solar powered Telecom System, then we can say it EcoNet system (a telecom network involving/advantaging local people).

NGOs, donors & the community

A project carried out by SolarAid in a Ugandan remote town (Katine) is now providing power supply to the town's health-care centre.
The solar panels power up the health centre's lighting system and also its vaccine fridge ensuring the proper storage of vaccines.
Moreover, community members can also charge their mobile phones at the health centre. The residents pay a fee for the service they receive that is used for maintaining the operation of the solar panels.
The NGO (SolarAid) and the Katine community were actively involved in the implementation. The donation to realize the project came from the Guardian newspaper & a US rock band.
I think this project is a good example that shows the successful partnership between NGO, Donors & the Community.
(Full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2010/feb/04/solar-panels-ojom-health-centre)

The secondary services

I thought all us are satisfied with what we did today. I hope we will try our Solar Generator to power up Pentti's Laptop on Sunday.

What are we going to do for the secondary services?

I was thinking of some appliance which needs only small DC power, anything you have that can create business opportunity for local enterprueners in the target communities.

If you can, think of the following : Hair trimmer, shaver, a chargeable lamp, chargeable radio/TV, ...

If you have, bring one and lets make it part of the video.

A day at the water lab

Today we had a good start with setting up the solar sail at the water lab.

It wasn't straightforward as initially thought, which meant some adjustments were needed to get the right amount of tension from all corners.

The sail is very light and also its fabric is strong.

It looks capable of properly supporting the weight of the solar panel (fabric).

It was great to have some practical work to do as part of the course tasks. It allows one to be creative and it further strengthens the spirit of team work.

Next we'll focus on fixing the two components (sail & solar fabric) together.

As discussed this morning, for the present need, it may be sufficient to fix only the solar fabric at the center of the sail and to show how the actual installation will look like on the design being prepared by Pentti (i.e., the three fabrics to get the whole 150W).

If this design is done according to scale, it'll also help to estimate the required sail size & thus can be recommended to NSN.

Secondary Services

This is a small refrigetor for medicine that is portable, most efficient and uses less energy.

Sundanzer runs on small 75 W module in most climates.
Refrigerator Temp range -1 degree Centigrade to 9 degree Cent. Its freezer Temp from -18 to -5 degree C.


Our system can also be used for barbers to charge their machines(hair clippers,
trimmers,....). Its a good idea for business if its possible to find a dc powered hair clippered machine.

Solar-based solution from Ericsson & Telecom Italia

** Similar project under trial in Italy **

Ericsson & Telecom Italia recently unveiled Eco-Smart Solution, a solar generator using flexible solar panels for radio base station.

The Eco-Smart solution features an elliptical support structure coated with flexible solar panels wrapping up the antenna as shown in the photo.

In the case of NSN, the antenna size is considerably smaller as it serves only a village community and hence the solar panel structure will be markedly different. However, the fact that major technology vendors are shifting towards sustainable power supply sources such as flexible solar generators is striking.

Read more at -

http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2009/07/1327971

Reducing energy costs

Another interesting story from Uganda.

Telecom service provider Celtel teamed up with Ericsson to reduce energy costs in its Ugandan telecom market by opting for a hybrid energy solution that comprises diesel power and battery.

Prior to this, the required power to operate every remote mobile base station was supplied from two diesel generators that work alternatively.

The driving force behind this move is the running cost of diesel and other costs related to site visits for re-fuelling and maintenance. The solution offered by Ericsson involves replacing one of the generators with a special battery bank. This results in as much as 50% savings for the telecom operator and also a positive environmental impact.

This is a quite encouraging experience. In the case of NSN, if they can successfully deploy a fully solar-powered solution, then the savings thus achieved will be even more.

* On a side note, I just finished working on the 'green energy' part of the final report. Thoughts/comments at Google Docs. What about the other topics already split in the first round of tasks?

Efficient telecom solutions for emerging markets

An interesting trend is developing among telecom solution providers - i.e., the competition for a share of the lucrative market in emerging economies.

Altobridge Limited is one of the new players in this sector following its recent acquisition of BTS hardware manufacturer ADC Mobile Network Solutions. Read more at:

http://www.developingtelecoms.com/bringing-mobile-connectivity-to-small-remote-communities.html

The company claims that its solution has one of the lowest power consumption figures on the market.

It goes on to say " ... For solar installations, the solution has an intelligent ‘Night Mode’ reducing power use at night during low traffic periods. The intelligent control of the BTS can be used to vary services and coverage at night or during periods of low power availability, with further power savings achieved through intelligent management of the power amplifier ... "

Is it the case with NSN?

It will be interesting to know if they have a similar mechanism to minimize power consumption, which allows additional services to be provided in a more reliable manner.

3D modeling

I did some preliminary work on the CAD software (3DS MAX) and this is what I got after 3 hours of getting reacquainted with it.



Now to get some sleep before driving for 5 hours in the morning. Happy Easter!