Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Development That Matters Building Sustainable Energy Service on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Development That Matters The Path to blueEnergy Introduction to blueEnergy So, Who Cares? Design in the “Real World”

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Mission What is blueEnergy? blueEnergy is a nonprofit organization that provides a sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities through the construction, installation, and maintenance of hybrid wind and solar electric systems. blueEnergy is committed to creating the local capacity needed to support the long-term operation of the energy systems. blueEnergy then leverages strategic partnerships to build on the foundation of energy to create other basic services such as water and communications, necessary elements for sustainable economic development.

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life blueEnergy’s Specialty

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Location

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life The blueEnergy Approach Focus on building lasting, local solution: - Use appropriate technology - Build local capacity; IPCC-INATEC - Long-term commitment Understanding and respect for local way of life blueEnergy’s systems are implemented using a variety of models, each of which can be characterized along the following dimensions: Location (urban, semi-urban, rural), constituency served (private, public), ownership (blueEnergy, private, public), management/operation (blueEnergy, private, public), and physical configuration (battery charging station, fixed battery bank, dual-use).

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Community Model V

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Number of Installations: 8 Number of Communities Served: 6 Number of Beneficiaries: 1,500 Installed Capacity: 7.5 kW Number of Local Employees: 14 Number of On-Site Volunteers: 10 Snapshot of blueEnergy Today

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Early Exposure Raised in green Eugene -Awareness of logging and wildlife issues Mother’s work in the Americas -Traveled with her to Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, engendered empathy and sense of social awareness Father’s love of nature -Hiking, backpacking in the wilderness gave appreciation for conservation Environmentally conscious high school -Midland School emphasized self-reliance and environmental stewardship

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life A Love Affair Studied environmental engineering at UC Berkeley -Broad overview of water, structures and electrical Worked at LBL (with Ashok!) - Learned hands-on project skills / basic design Took renewable energy survey course in the Energy and Resource Group (ERG) -Learned basics of wind, solar and hydro power Was immediately taken in by wind power: -International -Environmentally sound -Technically challenging

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Entrepreneurship in the Developing World -MIT course at the Media Lab taught by Alex (Sandy) Pentland and Joost Bonsen -The point of the class was to create business plans for products and services targeted at the world’s two billion poorest -I took class in October 2002 and developed a business plan for blueEnergy as a company building, installing and servicing micro wind energy systems for UV water purification (for Ashok’s UV Waterworks). MIT $50k Business Plan Competition -128 submissions in the warm-up $1k Business Plan Competition -10 winners, with blueEnergy chosen as the winner in the Global Markets category. Prize money was small but gave me confidence to carry the idea beyond the classroom. Born at MIT

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life From scratch -We started in Nicaragua with a couple thousand dollars, a small network of family friends, and lots of elbow grease. Building local network, reputation -Established strong partnership with the National Technical Institute, Bluefields campus. This gave us shop space, transportation and much needed credibility. Capacity building, formalizing, maturing -Focus on building a strong foundation -Building towards a model that can deliver high volume and be replicated Respect from dedication and follow-through -Most thought we would fail and I can’t blame them, it was a high-risk proposition -We had many setbacks but were dogged in our determination. This has brought us a lot of respect within Nicaragua and abroad. Launching in Nicaragua

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Design In The Real World

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Conference Activities

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Conference Results

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Economic Development Requires Basic Services Light… Water… Refrigeration… Communication… Health Services… … all require energy service! Transportation

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life The Catch-22 in development: It’s hard to develop where there isn’t development A sustained effort at building up basic capacities and services is required to build a foundation upon which economic development, like eco-tourism, can happen “Build and leave” doesn’t work in remote places. Development of infrastructure and services must be accompanied by long-term support for operations and maintenance. The Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua does not yet have the facilities to attract the kind of professionals needed for this sustained effort… Centro Ecologico Regional de Capacitacion Ambiental (CERCA) The Need for Long-term Capacity Building

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Case Study: Monkey Point Isolated community on Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, ~ 60 km south of Bluefields Predominantly Creole community with some Indigenous and Mestizo residents Access by water only (some jungle land routes do exist, but no roads) Unrivaled natural beauty Community threatened by Dry Canal Project (Nicaragua/Venezuela/Iran) Looking to develop local tourism as an alternative… effort in very early stages -> Pito Eco Lodge V

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Monkey Point: Approach and Challenges The community currently has no means of refrigeration; blueEnergy is exploring a project to study the use of its energy system for ice making Monkey Point has a communication radio that allows it to communicate to surrounding communities and to Bluefields; the radio was installed in June 2007 and is powered by blueEnergy’s energy system Currently there are no permanent health services available Transportation from Bluefields by water only; boat ride can be rough blueEnergy has been involved in community since 2006, completing its first energy system installation in June 2007p Has fresh water source, but needs verification of cleanliness and distribution to end-use locations; blueEnergy has feasibility project for this purpose in 2008 V

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Social justice - empathy and doing right because it is right Environmental survival - the finiteness of the world Political survival Judgement of history - the trends are clear, its time to act! Why Care, Why Act?

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Be conscious, lead by example wherever you are Change corporate culture… start small Strengthen an existing NGO Last resort… start your own organization What You Can Do (My Two Cents)

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life Follow through, follow through, follow through - Do what you say you’re going to do. Sounds simple, but incredibly powerful and will set you apart from others. Get away from us/them, good/bad duality -Get away from “corporations are bad” mentality. All corporations, even the evil ones, only exist to service some need (or weakness) that we, the public have. Invest in the nonprofit sector -Nonprofit sector full of dreamers, artists - in need of more analytical engineers and leaders than have a strong sense of empathy -But don’t go into the nonprofit sector to get away from dealing with money, big egos and difficult customers… the nonprofit sector features all these and more! General Thoughts

Presentation to ER291: Design for Sustainable Communities UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - April 22, 2008 energy for people, energy for enterprise, energy for life For more information and to help support our important work, please visit: Mathias Craig, Executive Director Tel: Thank You Special thanks to Ashok Gadgil for inviting me to present