Securing a donation of solar panels from BP Solar seems like it would be the most difficult part of a student-run sustainable energy project in an impoverished country. But a group of Tufts students still had much more to do before they could bring electricity to a village in northern Haiti.
Supported by the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), the members of Sustainable Energy Access for Haiti (SEAH) recently completed the installation of an off-grid solar energy system in the rural community of Balan, Haiti. The panels electrify three rooms and illuminate the community space near LyceeNationale Jacques Roumain, Balan's public school. SEAH has spent the last two years working on all aspects of their experimental energy project, from assessing and refining the design to funding and budgeting.
According to senior Michael Graifman, one of SEAH's leaders, the school of over 300 students is located in a neighborhood that had no publicly illuminated areas. Graifman's team communicated with a local group of community leaders and identified lighting as an important need in the town.
"[The fluorescent lights] would not only increase the amount of time available per day for commercial activities, but also provide the students at the local school with a space to study their lessons," Richard Novak, a Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said in an email to the Daily.
In addition to helping SEAH with the design of the 1.4-kilowatt power system, Novak joined Graifman, two other SEAH members and executive director of the Haitian Coalition of Somerville Franklin Dalembert at the installation site.
There, they learned from the school's principal that students normally study by walking around and reading out loud.
"This was a completely different notion of studying for us," sophomore Naika Pierre, a Creole-speaking member of SEAH, said. "So, we concluded that external lights would be more beneficial for the students to prepare for exams."
Because the classrooms get very hot in the summer months and the school's secretary has to work several miles away to access the nearest computer, the group also installed outlets to power two computers, fans and lights in two classrooms, Novak said.
According to Graifman, these simple electrical improvements will allow the school to increase its capacity by 90 students.
Once the general energy needs were determined, SEAH had to align its technical and financial capabilities with the community's expectations. Junior Andrew McGlathery said that this process happened in a "backwards way."
"Normally, you first make the energy assessment and then acquire all resources," he said. "But we are a student group, so we had to give the community our budget and let them decide how they wanted to distribute it."
With the help of local volunteers, the group spent the next few days preparing for the installation by digging holes for the solar panels and assembling and wiring all of the equipment that they had either shipped from the United States or bought at local hardware stores. According to Graifman, after mounting the solar panels properly, they built a cement wall around them and installed a security light.
Although the latter steps of the installation were considered vital for security reasons, they might prove to be unnecessary because many townspeople were heavily involved in the project. According to McGlathery, this provides a "social deterrent against theft."
"When the community feels ownership of the project and the new energy system, they are more likely to protect that investment," he said.
Training the community in system maintenance has also been a crucial component in the endurance of SEAH's initiative. This comprehensive training included quizzes on various troubleshooting scenarios and continued with weekly updates to the U.S. engineers, according to Graifman.
"These costs are expected to remain inexpensive, and in the future SEAH would like to explore ancillary revenue streams that could be generated using the electricity from the system," Graifman said.
Novak said that the several reports he has received since returning from Haiti indicate that the system has already had a positive impact on the community.
According to Graifman, SEAH's decision to work closely with the Balan locals is a key lesson for international development projects.
"The idea for a project should always be driven by the stakeholders in a community," he said. "It's important to consider the perspective of beneficiaries from different social strata."
Graifman also said that SEAH avoided imposing U.S. norms on their decision-making. For example, they did not assume that students in Haiti study by sitting at desks; they turned to local experts for advice, instead. This information made illuminating the outdoor space as much of a priority as illuminating individual classrooms.
In addition to developing a sustainable off-grid energy solution for the community of Balan, SEAH aimed to document the best practices for sourcing energy equipment to Haiti so that they could be replicated in the future.
"If we had to do this again, we could do it much quicker and on a much bigger scale," Graifman said.
The success of this project, however, came after overcoming several logistical and technical obstacles.
According to Graifman, the most unnerving part was shipping the eight donated solar panels from Boston. SEAH had no idea if the 520-pound crate carrying the panels would protect the cargo or if it would get lost or held at Haitian customs.
"Our team definitely had a collective fist pump when I got the message that the ‘big boxes' arrived safely," Graifman said.
According to Novak, the project could have easily been dismissed as a student pipe dream if SEAH members hadn't shown so much persistence and dedication to the cause.
"Technical preparation is only a small part of a project of this scale," Novak said. "The members' diverse abilities really helped drive the project forward more effectively than if it was a team of engineers."
Director of the IGL Sherman Teichman said the group's success was due to their dedication and the synergy of several programs, including Engineers Without Borders and the Empower Program for Social Entrepreneurship.
"SEAH's most recent project is another benchmark of integration and value … and part of an unbroken chain of accomplishments," Sherman said.
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering John Durant also praised the team for their resourcefulness.
"I was particularly inspired by the fact that none of the students had in-depth training in solar panel installation and wiring," he said. "Yet they were able to get the right advice and find the right people to work with in a troubled land like Haiti."
