NEWSLETTER - Uni Oldenburg

LIST OF FORMER PARTICIPANTS

213 01/02 AVELLANEDA Jordi Mr. Spain [email protected] 01/02 SHAH Sayed Faruque Mr. Bangladesh/German [email protected] 01/02 KOMILOV Asliddin Mr. Usbekistan [email protected] 02/03 NJIKI Alice Mrs. Cameroon [email protected] 02/03 SAHA Jhantu Kumar Mr. Bangladesh [email protected] 02/03 TAFESSE Anteneh Gulilat Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 02/03 VEGA Fernando Mr. Honduras [email protected] 02/03 IRASARI Pudji Ms. Indonesia [email protected] 02/03 LEE Joo Yeol Mr. Korea [email protected] 02/03 KHADKA Manoj Kumar Mr. Nepal [email protected] 02/03 MISHRA Subhash Kumar Mr. Nepal [email protected] 02/03 SHAO Jie Ms. China [email protected] 02/03 TRUJILLO Q. Juan José Mr. Colombia [email protected] 02/03 PETER Marco Mr. Germany [email protected] 02/03 NACCI Gianpiero Mr. Italy [email protected] 02/03 FAROOQ C. Ihtsham Mr. Pakistan [email protected] 02/03 BANGO C. Alejandro Mr. Spain [email protected] 02/03 GALSAN Sevjidsuren Mrs. Mongolia [email protected] 03/04 VENERANDA M. Nicolás E. Mr. Argentina [email protected] 03/04 AHMED Firoz Uddin Mr. Bangladesh [email protected] 03/04 AMAN Julia Ms. Bangladesh [email protected] 03/04 AJAMAH Ferdinand Mr. Cameroon [email protected] 03/04 SÁNCHEZ C. Julio R. Mr. Colombia [email protected] 03/04 MITRA Indradip Mr. India [email protected] 03/04 LAWLESS Richard Mr. Ireland [email protected] 03/04 HAN Seong-sook Ms. Korea [email protected] 03/04 HIEU Trinh Viet Ms. Vietnam [email protected] 03/04 SARRAN Mathieu Mr. France [email protected] 03/04 BRÖER Torsten Mr. Germany [email protected] 03/04 MICHEL Andreas Mr. Germany [email protected] 03/04 BANDLAMUDI Georg C. Mr. India [email protected] 03/04 HUSAINOVA Farida D. Ms. Kyrgyzstan [email protected] 03/04 DOSMAILOV Meirzhan A. Mr. Kazakhstan [email protected] 03/04 POSSAMAI Everson Mr. Brazil [email protected] 03/04 PALLE BADALGE Iresha S. Mr. Sri Lanka [email protected] 03/04 BAJRACHARYA Prashun R. Mr. Nepal [email protected] 03/04 YANDRI Erkata Mr. Indonesia [email protected]

LIST OF STAFF

Name mail - address

Ronald Frels (secretary) [email protected] Geisler (technical assistant) [email protected]

Hans Holtorf (lecturer) [email protected] Knagge (co-ordinator) [email protected]. Konrad Blum (lecturer) [email protected]

Dr. Detlev Heinemann (lecturer) [email protected]. H.P. Waldl (Igor) (lecturer (extern.)) [email protected]

Dr. Jürgen Schumacher (lecturer (extern.)) [email protected] Golba (Head of PPRE) [email protected]

Prof. Dr. J. Peinke (lecturer) [email protected]. Dr. J. Parisi (Head of EHF-group) [email protected]

Prof. Dr. M. Meyer-Renschhausen (lecturer) [email protected]. Dr. G. Bauer (lecturer) [email protected]

USEFUL ADDRESSESName mail - address

Dr. Joachim Göttsche - Solar-Institut Juelich, FH Aachen [email protected]. Dr. Weiler, Polytechnic Emden [email protected]

Prof. Dr. Sigrid Jannsen [email protected]. Ulrich Graf - University of Bremen [email protected] (or: [email protected])

Prof. H.G. Beyer - Univ. Appl. Science Magdeburg [email protected]. Thomas Degner - ISET [email protected]

Dr. Franz Trieb - DLR, Germany [email protected]. W. Schlez - GARRAD HASSAN LTD. [email protected]

Marita Palmer - DAAD [email protected] (newly incharge for PPRE)Anke Stahl - DAAD [email protected]

gate (gtz - question answer information) [email protected] (Discussion List on Solar Energy Education) [email protected]

PPRE-L (PPRE-alumni-network-list) [email protected]

48

NEWSLETTERNo. 1/2004 – Vol 23

EDITORIAL

Dear Reader—it took us longer than usual to complete this issue of the PPRENewsletter. The reasons are manyfold and will be obvious when you turn thepages and see what was and is going on in the PPRE programme and in theRenewable Energy research at Oldenburg.

So the PPRE staff hope that you will find this issue of the Newsletter as at-tractive as the previous ones and it will help to strengthen the bonds betweenall people involved with or interested in the Oldenburg programme and/or itsalumni worldwide.

Well, let me express my hope that your interest and contributions will help usto finish the next issue much more quickly. We might expect and receive yourinput until January 2005, please.

Best regards and all good wishes

PS: Please see also the articles about PPRE Web site and alumni questionnaire!

Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy — PPRE

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

PPRE Alumni Summer School 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

NEWS FROM PPRE ALUMNI IN BRIEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

PROJECTS OF PPRE ALUMNI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

CONFERENCES & EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

PPRE Alumni Workshop in Nairobi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

WEB LINKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

LIST OF FORMER PARTICIPANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

LIST OF STAFF & USEFUL LINKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Published by:Carl von OssietzkyUniversity of Oldenburg,Institute of Physics,Energy and Semiconductor Research Labs,Postgraduate ProgrammeRenewable Energy—PPRE,D - 26111 Oldenburgphone: +49-441-798.3544,fax: +49-441-798.3990,e-mail: [email protected]

Editors of this issue:Edu Knagge & Konrad BlumTypesetting&Layout: LATEXPrinting by Printing Officeof the CvO University


141 97/98 SCHRÖDER Christoph Mr. Deutschland [email protected] 97/98 JACKSON Thomas Mr. USA [email protected] 97/98 DELAMO Alex Mr. Spanien [email protected] 97/98 ENDRES Manuela Ms. Deutschland [email protected] 97/98 VANGINÉ Wooslène Ms. Haiti [email protected] 97/98 LUSTIG Konrad Mr. Deutsch [email protected] 97/98 GÓMEZ Ramon Mr. Spanien [email protected] 98/99 MASUM Syed E. Huq Mr. Bangladesch [email protected] 98/99 LIU Hui Ms. China [email protected] 98/99 YANG Na Ms. China151 98/99 URENA VARGAS Wesly Mr. Costa Rica [email protected] 98/99 KEKELIA Bidzina Mr. Georgia [email protected] 98/99 PATIL Samudragupta Ashok Mr. India [email protected] 98/99 TIAKO NGALANI Christophe Mr. Kamerun [email protected] 98/99 JAOKO Hancox Wilson Mr. Kenia [email protected] 98/99 CHIMA Timothy Freeman Mr. Malawi [email protected] 98/99 AL-ALAWI Ali Salim Mr. Oman [email protected] 98/99 CHIRVASE Dana Ms. Rumänien [email protected] 98/99 DLAMINI Sibusiso Ndumiso Mr. Swaziland [email protected] 98/99 JAMIJANSHARAV Khishigbayar Ms. Mongolia [email protected] 98/99 LAM Johannes (Jan) Mr. Netherlands [email protected] 98/99 STRAUB Christoph Mr. Germany163 98/99 OEHRENS Juan Sebastian Mr. Chile [email protected] 99/00 TADESSE Alemu Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 99/00 KHAN Md Mesbah Mr. Bangladesch [email protected] 99/00 HOQUE Mozammel Mr. Bangladesch [email protected] 99/00 AKWANWI AMBE Roseline Ms. Cameroon [email protected] 99/00 WANG Di Mr. China [email protected] 99/00 PAREDES Juan Roberto Mr. Colombia [email protected] 99/00 SUBBARAO Sham Mr. India [email protected] 99/00 AL-NAWAISEH Bassil Mr. Jordan172 99/00 GAMULA Gregory Mr. Malawian [email protected] 99/00 DAHAL Yubaraj Mr. Nepal [email protected] 99/00 MUSA Mzumbe Mr. Tanzania [email protected] 99/00 SENDEGEYA Al-Mas Mr. Uganda [email protected] 99/00 ZIESMER Andrea Ms. Germany [email protected] 99/00 ULZIISUREN Enhbold Mr. Mongolia [email protected] 99/00 GLÄSER Bernhard Mr. Germany [email protected] 99/00 KUYVENHOVEN Simon Mr. Netherlands [email protected] 00/01 ISLAM Mazharul Mr. Bangladesh [email protected] 00/01 FUH Veronica Manka’s Ms. Cameroon [email protected] 00/01 MU Yundong Mr. China [email protected] 00/01 P.V. Aravind Mr. India [email protected] 00/01 SRIKANTH Subbarao Mr. India [email protected] 00/01 GIL Algert Mr. Mexico [email protected] 00/01 GHIMIRE Ram Prasad Mr. Nepal [email protected] 00/01 ANAHUA Edgar Narciso Mr. Peru [email protected] 00/01 MAGESSA Finias Bryceson Mr. Tanzania [email protected] 00/01 NGUYEN Quoc Khanh Mr. Vietnam [email protected] 00/01 ISLAM MD. Saiful Mr. Bangladesh [email protected] 00/01 TANG Hui Mr. China [email protected] 00/01 RISSE Oliver Mr. Germany [email protected] 00/01 ABBAS Mushahid Mr. Pakistan194 00/01 TARDÓN Saioa Ms. Spain [email protected] 00/01 NIÑO Raul Mr. Venezuela [email protected] 00/01 VON HAUFF Elizabeth Leoni Ms. Canada [email protected] 01/02 MOHTAD Ibrahim Mr. Bangladesh [email protected] 01/02 BELLE EBOTE Vivian Mrs. Cameroon [email protected] 01/02 NANJI Henri Nota Mr. Cameroon [email protected] 01/02 SANCHEZ Santiago Jorge Mr. Ecuador [email protected] 01/02 SHUKLA Anand Mr. India [email protected] 01/02 GADDE Butchaiah Mr. India [email protected] 01/02 HEANG Bora Mr. Cambodia [email protected] 01/02 OCHIENG Francis Xavier Mr. Kenya [email protected] 01/02 DHITAL Ram Prasad Mr. Nepal [email protected] 01/02 POUDEL Om Prasad Mr. Nepal [email protected] 01/02 MAZIMPAKA Ernest Mr. Rwanda [email protected] 01/02 ABD-EL-MESIH Bahy Saad Abdalla Mr. Egypt [email protected] 01/02 UMAÑA Alejandro Mr. Colombia [email protected] 01/02 PILALAS Loukas Mr. Greece [email protected] 01/02 TRIANTAFYLLOS Panagiotis Mr. Greece [email protected] 01/02 MANSSEN Thomas Mr. Germany [email protected]

01/02 WINTERFELDT Jörg Mr. Germany [email protected]

47


68 92/93 EL-ASSAD Kawther A.Md. Ms. Sudan [email protected] 92/93 MUTWALY Safaá Ms. Sudan70 92/93 WANG Jing Jing Ms. China [email protected] 92/93 WAFULA James C. Mr. Kenya [email protected] 92/93 BLAAS Markus Mr. Germany [email protected] 92/93 GEORG Rolf Dr. Germany [email protected] 93/94 EL-GHANI Ahmed Abd Dr. Egypt [email protected] 93/94 TUBAIL As’ad Dr. Palestine76 93/94 TOMMY Henry J.M Dr. Sierra Leone [email protected] 93/94 NAHUI ORTIZ Johnny Dr. Peru [email protected] 93/94 LEON Mathias Augustus Mr. India [email protected] 93/94 ROMMEL Mathias Mr. Germany [email protected] 93/94 MERGIA Mesfin Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 93/94 GADAH ELDAM Nagwa Ms. Sudan [email protected] 93/94 SIEFERT Oliver Mr. Germany [email protected] 93/94 ANDRIAMEHAFAPARANY Olivier Mr. Madagascar olivierdonat@hotmail84 93/94 RORDIGUES DOS SANTOS Rosana Dr. Brazil [email protected] 93/94 HURMUZAN KANAM Senda Mr. Indonesia [email protected] 94/95 LINGBO († Feb. 1996) Cui Mr. China87 94/95 YAN ZHAO Dong Mr. China88 94/95 TEKA Melis Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 94/95 TOLESSA Samson Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 94/95 BEST PRIMO Gayle Ms. Guyana [email protected] 94/95 MYINT Mu Yar Ms. Myanmar92 94/95 GAUTAM Satish Mr. Nepal [email protected] 94/95 SELLAHEWA Raveendra A. Mr. Sri Lanka [email protected] 94/95 NTOGA Julius Mr. Tanzania [email protected] 94/95 GASSIR FAROUK M’med Ibrahim Mr. Sudan96 94/95 GHEBREHIWOT Debesai Mr. Eritrea [email protected] 94/95 MESFIN Yohannes Mr. Eritrea98 94/95 KSOLL Michael Dr. Germany [email protected] 94/95 KUNTZE Björn Mr. Germany [email protected]

100 95/96 NEGASH Bereket Mr. Eritrea101 95/96 FRASER Orville Mr. Guyana [email protected] 95/96 ROSYID Oo Abdul Mr. Indonesia [email protected] 95/96 BASNET Diwaker Mr. Nepal [email protected] 95/96 AHMED Maqbool Mr. Pakistan [email protected] 95/96 MAGPOC Godofredo Jr. Mr. Philippines [email protected] 95/96 MALTSEV Alexandre Mr. Russia107 95/96 LIN Yeong-Chuan Mr. Taiwan [email protected] 95/96 KINGU Elizabeth A. Ms. Tanzania [email protected] 95/96 ENDALE GEDA Genene Mr. Ethiopia110 95/96 BABA Abdallah Mr. Tunesia [email protected] 95/96 FUENTES HEINRICH Enrique Mr. Chile [email protected] 95/96 STEINMEIER Ernstjoachim Mr. Mexico [email protected] 95/96 NIKOLIC Milorad Mr. Germany [email protected] 95/96 WOELK Karsten Mr. Germany [email protected] 96/97 KAMBERI Mirela Ms. Albania [email protected] 96/97 PEREZ Orlando Mr. Bolivia [email protected] 96/97 CELESTINE ANYAM Awa Mr. Cameroon118 96/97 YE Zhao Hui Ms. China [email protected] 96/97 TESHOME Hiwote Ms. Ethiopia [email protected] 96/97 YIMER Nebiyu Mr. Ethiopia [email protected] 96/97 GBAGBO Joseph Kofi Nani Mr. Ghana122 96/97 HEGDE Gajanana K. Mr. India [email protected] 96/97 OSAWA Bernard Mr. Kenya [email protected] 96/97 BALLESTEROS Miguel Angel Mr. Nicaragua125 96/97 PROJESTUS M. († 2002) Rwiza Mr. Tanzania126 96/97 MORRIS Richard Mr. Australia [email protected] 96/97 SANCHO Sebastian Mr. Costa Rica [email protected] 96/97 DALEXIS († Feb. 1999) Walmé Mr. Haiti129 96/97 BELZ Matthias Mr. Germany [email protected], [email protected] 96/97 SCHRÖTER Wolfram Mr. Germany [email protected] 97/98 VÁSQUEZ Ruben Eduardo Mr. Chile [email protected] 97/98 CHEN Rong Mr. China [email protected] 97/98 ZHANG Yin Mr. China [email protected] 97/98 CASTILLO Guillermo Eduardo Mr. El Salvador135 97/98 ABDULKADIR I. Bekala Ms. Ethiopia [email protected] 97/98 AHIATAKU T. Wisdom Mr. Ghana [email protected] 97/98 PARTHAN Binu Mr. India [email protected] 97/98 ODEH Ibrahim Mr. Jordan [email protected] 97/98 SICHALI Francis Mr. Malawi [email protected] 97/98 PETRUCCI Fernando Mr. Argentinien [email protected]

46

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

Winds of Change / a newPPRE Structure

by Edu Knagge / Michael Golba

After months of discussion and prepara-tion the Postgraduate Programme Renew-able Energy will be restructured completely,so that already the next intake for Wintert-erm 2004 will face quite some changes. Theprobably most significant differences to thecurrent PPRE, which is running already forabout 17 years, are

• the extension of the programme up to16 months (which means: end of thenext programme is scheduled for31.01.2006!

• the implementation of Tuition fees(1000 Euro per term)

• restructuring of the curriculum(implementation of modules) and theMSc project.

Details about motivations, which lead tothe new structure, the changes themselves,consequences for future students andfurther initiatives are given in brief in thefollowing.

Motivation for a New PPREStructure

• Advancement / development in theRE field requires a full 2 semesterlecturing programme

• The Master Thesis requires a 6months research project integratedinto a research unit or company

• For national and internationalrecognition of the Masters degree theacceptance by an accreditation agencyis required

• Running an internationallyfully-fletched Masters programmerequires tuition fees

Prerequisites for a New Structure

• Students and employers demand aprogramme as dense as possible tocover all required subjects and asshort as possible to keep the jobs(leave-taking)

• The programme has to stay open forstudents not able to pay tuition fees(scholarships from DAAD and others)

New Structure Outline

• New modulised course structure

• Overall duration 16 months: October1st year x to end of January year x+2

• six-month Master Thesis withresearch units at OldenburgUniversity or in co-operation withother research institutes / companies

Consequences for PPREstudents

• Duration is extended to 16 months

• Master thesis of 6 months, embeddedinto research projects / also withexternal institutions

• New modulised curriculum structure

• Implementation of international creditsystem

• Accredited MSc degree

• Tuition fees of EUR 3000,– (i.e. EUR1000,– per term)

Further Initiatives planned:

Distance Education

• Developing, testing and implementingmodules

3

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

• Target groups - taylored modules foron the job training

• Task Force Distance Education forSustainable Development (DESDe)comprising partners within OldenburgUniversity

PhD Programme

• Concept development for aninterdisciplinary and internationallyoriented Graduate School centredaround Renewable Energy

EHF joines EUREC MasterProgramme

The Department EHF (Energy and Semi-conductor Research – see<http://www.-physik.uni-oldenburg.de/ehf/>for a de-scription of the research fields.), the ‘motherorganisation’ of PPRE, a member of EU-REC (European Renewable Energy Cen-ters Agency – <http://www,eurec.be>), hasdecided to join theEuropean Master Re-newable Energyas acore provider. EU-REC Masters students will take their firstterm at Oldenburg in English and then joinanother university for their specialisation— details see on the EUREC web site<http://www.eurec.be>.

For the first intake at Oldenburg we expectabout 8-10 EUREC students at the end ofSeptember 2004.

New University Structure

Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburghas changed its structure: now five facultiesand a lot of institutes and departments un-der the faculties are organising research andteaching. See more details on the univer-sity’s updated web site —<http://www.uni-oldenburg.de>.

2nd PPRE PublicationProject

by George C. Bandlamudi (PPRE 2003/04)

After the first successful PPRE publicationproject the second volume is in preparation– articles have been submitted now and theeditors and advisors are busy with the pro-cess of making the volume ready for print-ing.

Below you find the call for papers, as it ap-peared on PPRE-L, some months ago:

Dear friends, as you know that PPRE hasbeen an international course with partici-pants from all over the world and is 17 yearsold, having its alumini, currently work-ing in various parts of the world and invery many interesting organizations. A fewof us had thought that it would be niceif we could compile some technical pa-pers/articles which would be of use to uswhile we work in our respective fields. Aswe all know, one cannot specialize in every-thing at the same time. Yet, we need one an-other and the co-operation and contributionfrom one another. And hence, we are goingto compile some papers/articles drawn fromall the different varieties of renewable en-ergy technologies currently viable, from therich experiences of our PPRE and our con-tacts. Here are a few details:

The compilation: (Aim / Purpose):

• It would help us while we work in thefield

• Current renewable energy technolo-gies of various kinds are discussed atlength in just one compilation

• Some Tips and ways to make thesetechnologies viable in our own placesof work, etc.

• It would be a good and collective workof the PPRE down the years and helpus all to share with others as to whatwe do and what we did.

4


LIST OF FORMER PARTICIPANTSNO YEAR Surname Name Tit. COUNTRY e-mail

1 87/88 BEKDACH Hussein Dr. Libanon2 87/88 DEMEL Lothar Mr. Germany [email protected] 87/88 DIBOR Alfred Mr. Nigeria4 87/88 FISCHER Eric Mr. Brazil [email protected] 87/88 HEILSCHER Gerd Mr. Germany [email protected] 87/88 ZARATE Carlos Mr. Peru [email protected] 88/89 HAMAD Bakri Mr. Sudan8 88/89 KIMARO Ainea Mr. Tanzania [email protected] 88/89 HOLTORF Hans G. Mr. Germany [email protected]

10 88/89 MORAES-DUZAT Rejane Dr. Brazil [email protected] 88/89 NONTASO Ngarmnit Ms. Thailand [email protected] 88/89 LU Bai Ms. China13 88/89 JIA Xi-Nan Dr. China [email protected] 88/89 MAIGA Alhousseini Issa Mr. Mali [email protected] 88/89 OLUDHE Christopher Dr. Kenya [email protected] 88/89 PIETSCHER Jochen Mr. Germany [email protected] 88/89 RAKHA Hassan Mr. Egypt18 88/89 CAMILLO Roger R. Mr. Nicaragua [email protected] 88/89 RAMESH Muthya Praneshrao Mr. India [email protected] 88/89 TORO CORTES Francisco Mr. Chile

88/89 RIVASPLATA Cesar Mr. Peru [email protected] 89/90 GAO Ying Dr. China22 89/90 JAHN Ulricke Ms. Germany [email protected] 89/90 KIMANI John Muiruri Mr. Kenya [email protected] 89/90 HAN Wei Dr. China25 89/90 MIRANDA MURILLO Alexis Mr. Honduras [email protected] 89/90 MISRA K. Mr. India [email protected] 89/90 MUKHERJEE Partha S. Mr. India28 89/90 REYNALDO Reynaldo Mr. Philippines [email protected] 89/90 SCHWARZ Thomas Mr. Germany [email protected] 89/90 TARH Zaccheus T. Mr. Cameroon31 89/90 THI HONG HAI Nguyen Ms. Vietnam32 89/90 PARK Myong-Sik Mr. Korea33 90/91 BARROGA Maria L. Ms. Philippines34 90/91 HASSAN Gimba Mr. Nigeria35 90/91 USBECK Stefanie Ms. Germany [email protected] 90/91 ENNISON Isaac Mr. Ghana37 90/91 PANDEY Krishna C. Mr. India [email protected] 90/91 ADAM El Fadil Ahmed Dr. Sudan [email protected] 90/91 KIOKO Joel M. Mr. Kenya [email protected] 90/91 KNAGGE Edu Mr. Germany [email protected] 90/91 MISHRA Christanand Dr. India42 90/91 OKAE Charles Mr. Ghana [email protected] 90/91 OSMAN Abdalla Mr. Sudan44 90/91 PEIRIS Wettasingha Mr. Sri Lanka45 90/91 LEMUS T. Hernando Mr. Bolivia46 90/91 XIE Enhai Mr. China47 91/92 ABEL Bettina Ms. Germany [email protected] 91/92 ALLY Noel Mr. Guyana [email protected] 91/92 AUNG GYI Mr. Myanmar50 91/92 HAKIEM Mahmoud EL Mr. Sudan51 91/92 INGWE Anna Naftal Ms. Tanzania [email protected] 91/92 KAUR Jagjit Ms. India53 91/92 MANSARAY Kelleh G. Dr. Sierra Leone [email protected] 91/92 XIANG-JUN Ming Mr. China [email protected] 91/92 MUGISHA Patrick Mr. Uganda [email protected] 91/92 SANTOSO Murtiyanto Mr. Indonesia [email protected] 91/92 TEGELER Ludger Mr. Germany58 91/92 NABUTOLA W. Musungu Mr. Kenya [email protected] 92/93 AL KAILANI Fayez Jamil Mr. Jordan60 92/93 BUDIONO Chayun Mr. Indonesia [email protected] 92/93 HAMID Mohamed Ali Mr. Sudan [email protected] 92/93 KARIYAWASAM Palitha L.G. Mr. Sri Lanka [email protected] 92/93 KASSENGA Gabriel Mr. Tanzania [email protected] 92/93 ABDU (Former: Danja Laufun) Bertha Ms. Nigeria [email protected] 92/93 MAGNO DESENDARIO Evelyn Ms. Philippines [email protected] 92/93 SHRESTHA Kedar Shankar Dr. Nepal [email protected] 92/93 PANDYA Udayan Mr. India mail2udayan_in_india

@rediffmail.com

45

WEB SITES OF INTEREST

MHP Training Course on theInternet

This email is to let you know that the En-ergy Alternatives online microhydro courseis now online! Thanks for your patience.You can access the course from a banner onour homepage or by following this link:

Registration forms can be accessed fromthis link:<http://www.energyalternatives.ca/HydroCourse/

Energy Alternatives 8 - 6782 Veyaness RoadSaanichton, BC V8M 2C2, Canada

Eritrea Traditional StoveEfficiency Information

<http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/>

See fig. 2.4

MHP calculations

See<[email protected]>:

Quite often people are asking about pipe siz-ing/head loss. Below is a link to a site thatmakes it quick and simple. Use it for design,play what if, or just remove the mystery!

<http://www.connel.net/freeware/flowcalc1.shtml>

Digital Divide

Digital Divide, was one of the key words ofthe Johannesburg conference events.There-fore pleasehave a look at JHAI Founda-tions work on internet for remote areas.<http://www.jhai.org/jhai_remoteIT.html>

NewScientist on Biodiesel

An oil frequently found on your bathroomshelf may prove a viable alternative to diesel

fuel for cars and trucks. Early tests showthat jojoba-fuelled engines kick out fewerpollutants, run more quietly and for longer,and perform just as well as diesels.

The search for alternative fuels, driven bydwindling oil reserves and concerns overexhaust emissions, has lead researchers toinvestigate more sustainable sources suchas vegetable oils. Sunflower oil, soybeanoil and even opium poppy oil have all beentested as potential fuels.

Now it is jojoba’s turn. Jojoba is a desertshrub that can reach up to 4.5 metres highand typically lives more than 150 years, pro-ducing nuts that yield half their volume inoil. The non-toxic oil is widely used asa non-greasy skin-smoothing ingredient incosmetics, and as a base for shampoos andmake-up.

Engineers think the oil has potential as amotor fuel because it releases a lot of en-ergy when it burns and is chemically stableat the high temperatures and pressures in aworking engine.

<http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?-id=ns99993464>

Fig. In the Garden of Energielabor

44

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

Copies of the first publication Renewable Energyfor a Sustainable Future [ISBN 3-8142-0837-4]are still available from PPRE secretariat

• As this compilation will have contri-butions from the PPRE (staff, studentsboth current and the past), we believethat this would be a platform for re-newable energy (green) technocrats toexpress themselves and form a goodnetwork of global players.

• The content will be subject like markettrends, issues and barriers technologyspcific or RET, pragmatic approach,policy concerns, technical issues, via-bility of RETs in developing countries,e tc.

• The readers, markets targeted are in-stitutions (Energy Renewable Energyinstitutions) and our contacts, etc.

• The compilation would be in the bookform which will be a sequel to the ex-isting publication.

PPRE Alumni Data BaseOnline

by Edu Knagge

End of last year the PPRE team initiateda small project to develop a comprehen-sive PPRE Alumni Data Base online, whichbasically is meant to provide an Internet-Forum for all PPRE alumni to present them-selves and their organisations or companiesonline. This public forum is supposed to en-hance and enrich the already existing inter-national PPRE network.

The proposal was acknowledged by DAAD,who is actually supporting this project inthe frame of its “follow-up operations forstudents from developing countries” pro-gramme. End of February 2004 a ques-tionnaire was sent to approx. 220 PPRE

alumni worldwide, who are asked to returnthe filled in questionnaire together with anyother information, which they would like topresent online.

Basically alumni are asked to provide thefollowing data: Name, Nation, Contacts,Studies, Present Job, Professional Career,other information, like papers, articles pub-lished, projects, etc. Besides any business-links or links to any organisations orprojects they work for may be added. Nextto the questionnaire PPRE Oldenburg alsooffers free Web space for its alumni – so anyalumni who is in need of webspace, but islacking money or resources to do so, mightsend us his company profiles, project re-ports, etc., which will be put online by thePPRE team within a certain period of timeneeded for data processing.

By mid of July about 60 completed ques-tionnaires were returned to our office anddata processing is going on. In a few weekstime all information provided can be seenonline at:<http://www.ppre.de/alumni>

But in order to boost the capability of thePPRE Alumni Network we want to havemore of our alumni participating in thePPRE alumni Data base.

Questionnaires may be sent back to:<[email protected]>

PPRE Alumni SummerSchool 2004 — RE forSustainable Developmentat Oldenburg University

by Edu Knagge

From 25–29th May 2004 thePostgraduateProgramme Renewable Energy (PPRE)or-ganised a Summer School for its alumni atOldenburg University, which was sponsoredby DAAD.

5

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

During five days the Summer School, whichactually took place in the new buildingsof the Technology Centre Oldenburg (TGO– constructed in 2002) located next to theWechloy campus of University of Olden-burg, we counted some 80 participants.Nearly 40 PPRE alumni (see fig. 1.2) from20 countries found their way back togood-old-Oldenburg. Also the present PPREgroup with 19 Students enjoyed this excit-ing change from regular classes. Other par-ticipants came from the University of Old-enburg, local RE companies, DAAD, andother research institutions in Germany.

During the Summer School about 50 pre-sentations were given grouped by subjectsas listed below. The complete programmeis available at: <http://www.ppre.uni-oldenburg.de/alumni/>

The programme consisted of four days withpresentations, seminars and workshops anda one-day excursion to RE facilities in theregion. The key topics of the sessions havebeen (no.s of presentations in brackets):

• Wind Energy Research (4)

• Wind Energy — State of the Art /Projects (8)

• Energy Meteorology (3)

• Photovoltaic – Research / State of theart (3)

• Photovoltaic Projects / RuralElectrification / RET (8)

• Fuel Cells / Hydrogen (3)

• Solar Thermal (3)

• Biomass for Energy Generation (5)

• Energy Economy/CDM (2)

• Education in RE / Distance Education(6)

• Workshop:Market opportunities

The majority of the contributions were pre-sented by PPRE alumni, staff and PhD stu-dents of Oldenburg University and members

of the newly established Centre of Wind En-ergy Research<http://www.forwind.de/>,which is located just near the Universitycampus. Additionally local German compa-nies informed about their ongoing projectsand external researcher from other institu-tions in Germany were invited in order to in-form about new research fields with respectto RE.

The PPRE-Alumni-Summer School waspart of a series of events which took placein combination with the World Renew-able Energy ConferenceRenewables2004,which was held in Bonn, Germany from1–4 June 2004 (for details please check:<http://www.renewables2004.de>). All ac-tivities were supported by DAAD and theGerman Ministry for Economical Collabo-ration.

Actually 20 selected PPRE-Alumni togetherwith staff representatives of Oldenburg Uni-versity were also invited to take part in theHigher Education Forum, which was a re-lated event to theRenewables2004confer-ence in Bonn. This alumni congress was ti-tledCapacity building in Developing Coun-tries — Bringing RE to the People.

PPRE 2002/03

Although PPRE 2002/03 started with 15students only 14 made it to the final exams,where they obtained their MSc degree earlyin September 2003. We had seven studentsfrom Asia, three from Europe, two fromSouth America and two from Africa.

Graduation speech by ManojKhadka

After one very nice and good year with youpeople I am now heading towards my coun-try Nepal tomorrow morning. We had a re-ally nice time and there are a lot of thingsthat happened within one year which even

6


ity information of wind and solar energyresources to thirteen developing countries.Helping to assess the overall potential forrenewable energy and creating reliable site-specific information, SWERA is developinginformation tools for energy planners andproject developers, including regional andnational maps of solar and wind energy re-sources, and is also developing a geograph-ical information system (GIS) interface.

The web site of SWERA can be accessedat - http://swera.unep.net which is primar-ily designed to facilitate communicationamong members of the collaborating agen-cies. As such, it has a forum for use bythe collaborators to share information, anda calendar to help keep track of events andmeetings. The core of the web site isthe Data Archive and Dissemination Sys-tem which is used to share data both amongthe collaborators and with civic society in-terested in Solar and Wind Energy alterna-tives. Early in the life of the project the fo-cus will be on the construction of the EnergyResource Assessments.

Find more at<http://swera.unep.net>.

Kyoto Protocol Without theUnited States

There is a working paper that analyses pos-sible options for the European Union to re-act to the US non-participation in the KyotoProtocol. In particular, the paper argues thatit would be permissible under world tradelaw for the European Union to enact com-prehensive border adjustments on energytaxes against the United States. Such bor-der tax adjustments could be made, for ex-ample, when US products are imported intoEurope, to adjust for the much lower en-ergy prices in the United States. They couldalso take the form of special rebates onenergy-intensive EU exports to the UnitedStates to adjust for the higher energy pricesin Europe, in particular in those countries

that have enacted ambitious energy taxationschemes to implement the Kyoto Protocol.

Source:<http://www.glogov.org/workingpapers/-index.html>

Green Empowerment

Green Empowerment is a public non-profit international development organiza-tion based in Portland, Oregon that is sup-ported by individual donors, foundations,businesses, and international and govern-mental aid organizations.

They tell on their web site:

“Our mission is to promote community-based renewable energy projects interna-tionally to generate social and environmen-tal progress. Since our inception in 1997,we have developed a strong administra-tive structure. We have a diverse fund-ing base, important national & internationalpartnerships, and a solid track record. OurGuiding Principles and Development Modelare reflective of our core values of so-cial justice, local leadership and sustain-ability. Our Projects are usually associ-ated with: Residential lighting and elec-tricity, Power for schools and clinics, En-ergy for economic development and micro-enterprise, Comprehensive community en-vironmental plans and watershed protection,and the protection, development and acces-sibility of potable water sources. We uti-lize small hydropower, biomass, wind andsolar power projects to energize communi-ties and stimulate positive social and eco-nomic advances in an environmentally safemanner. All projects have a strong environ-mental protection component that includeswatershed mapping, resource conservation,and restoration activities.”

<http://www.greenempowerment.org/>

43


Torsten Bröer of PPRE 2003/04 attendedthis conference!

You can have a look on the details by visit-ing the website<http://www.teriin.org>andclicking on DSDS2004.

Conference on RenewableEnergy Technology for RuralDevelopment

The Center for Energy Studies, Institute ofEngineering and Nepal Solar Energy Soci-ety organised the second International Con-ference on Renewable Energy Technologyfor Rural Development on 12–14 October2003. The conference contributed to theexploration of the existing engineering ed-ucational activities, disseminating success-ful RETs undertaken in the participatingcountries and developing closer cooperationamong them.

Submitted by: Ram Prasad Dhital<[email protected]>

WEB LINKS

RETSCREEN

http://retscreen.gc.ca recommended byEverson Possamai, Brazil(PPRE03/04),who thinks it contains usefil software.

GTZ / GATE Information Service

Question Answer (QA) enquires can bemade in any one of the followinglanguages:English,Spanish,French,German. Q/Amakes its know-how available, free ofcharge, to anyone from the developingcountry or a non-commercial organizationinvolved in development cooperation. Q/Aservices include:

• Demand-and problem orientedinformation on specific technologies.

• Contacts to NGOs and experts inpartner countries

• Information on individual productsand procedures

• Addresses of manufactures andconsultants

• Project experiences

• etc.

Online documents:<http://www.gtz.de/gate/id/publications.htm>

Contact: E-mail:<[email protected]>

EUFORES-Newsletter

This newsletter contains valuable informa-tion about RE in Europe, is available free ofcharge from:

Marc Timmer EUFORES -Renewable Energy House26 rue du TraineB-1000 Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32 2 546 1948Fax: +32 2 546 [email protected]— <http://www.eufores.org>

Towards Sustainable EnergySystems

If you are motivated to see Germany’s po-sition on the subject above, then pleaselook at <http://www.wbgu.de/>and down-load the summary of the report on ‘Worldin Transition–Towards Sustainable EnergySystems’.

SWERA — Solar and WindEnergy Resource Assessment

The Solar and Wind Energy Resource As-sessment (SWERA) is bringing high qual-

42

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

Figure 1.1: Participants of PPRE Alumni Summer School 2004 at TGO-building in Olden-burg

Figure 1.2: Participants of PPRE-Alumni-Summer School 2004 visiting ENERCON-company

7

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

Table 1.1: PPRE 2002/03

Name Country Training Thesis project

Saha, Jhantu K. Bangladesh GTZ Hybrid SystemsShao Jie P.R. China GTZ CDM in ChinaNjiki, Alice G. Asaah Cameroon Univ. Emden BiogasTrujillo Q., Juan José Colombia Garrad Hassan WindTafesse, Anteneh G. Ethiopia E-Labor WindPeter, Marco Germany GTZ Efficient StovesVega, Fernando A. Honduras BEI Energ. Meteor.Irasari, Pudji Indonesia E-Labor WindNacci Gianpiero Italy IT Power India CDM PoliciesKhadka, Manoj K. Nepal ZSW Stuttgart PV SystemsMishra, Subhash K. Nepal ISET Kassel PV SystemsChoudhry, Ihtsham F. Pakistan E-Labor Micro-HydroLee, Joo Yeol Korea Lahmeyer SimulationBango C., Alejandro Spain SSD-EN, Mali PV Systems

I could not believe could happen in sucha short period of time. But its true in anykind of friendship there are moments whichdrives ourselves away from each other andthe same moment has came now also. I donot know when we will see each other inthe future again but I hope we all have a lotof time and our interests are similar whichcould bring us together once again.

One year PPRE was just not only fruitful interms of study – rather it was better in termof our different taste, cultural and other sim-ilar reasons, in which we all could accomo-date and build a strong relationship withineach other. At the last moment I would liketo wish all of you best of luck for the futureand try to remain in contact.

Speech by the Director ofPhysics Institute – Prof. MartinHolthaus

Dear graduates,

since many of you may not have seen mebefore, I should introduce myself: My name

is Martin Holthaus; I am teaching Theoreti-cal Physics — which is stuff concerned withquantum mechanics and abstract mathemat-ics —, so I am not directly involved in thePostgraduate Programme “Renewable Ener-gies”, in short: PPRE. However, I am theperson who gave the leftmost signature onthe bottom of your certificates, since I amcurrently serving as director of the Instituteof Physics. This may sound great, but it isactually a reason to pity me, because thisinvolves an awful lot of paperwork and ad-ministrational duties. Nonetheless, in spiteof all these duties, being here now on theoccasion of your graduation ceremony hasfirst priority.

Let me explain this statement in a few morewords. A couple of days ago I happenedto listen to a song by one of my favouritesongwriters, John Lennon, entitled “Imag-ine”. Many of you may know this song;there is a line in it saying — I hope I getit right —: “Imagine all the people, sharingall the world. You may say I’m a dreamerbut I’m not the only one. I hope some dayyou’ll join us and the world will live as one”.

8

CONFERENCES & EVENTS

support the growth of technologies withinour people who will ultimately raise produc-tion levels of all sectors of the economy in-cluding tradable commodities. So you havedone a noble job in that direction, and weare much thankful.

Microhydro-Electric Systemsworkshop

Microhydro-Electric Systems workshop —San Juan Islands, Washington state, April2003—Harness small streams for home in-dependence! Classroom sessions, labs, sys-tem tours, and hands-on work Monday-Thursday, April 21-24 - Tuition: $450.

This workshop showed how to design afully functional micro-hydro electric sys-tem. Learn site evaluation, including howto measure and estimate head and flow. Per-form preliminary system sizing and designfor mechanical and electrical power gen-eration of 50 watt to 100 kilowatt capaci-ties. The workshop included classroom ses-sions, tours of systems, lab sessions, a tourof Canyon Industries, a hydro turbine manu-facturer, other system tours, and a hands-oninstallation.

Topics: * System Components * TurbineTypes * AC & DC Systems * Site Analy-sis & System Design * Battery Storage &Controls * Troubleshooting & Maintenance* Hybrid Systems * Case Studies.

Registration: Solar Energy Inter-national PO Box 715 Carbondale,CO 81623 970-963-8855 Fax: 970-963-8866 <[email protected]>

Downsizing Technology for RuralDevelopment

International Seminar on Downsizing Tech-nology for Rural Development was or-ganised at Regional Research Laboratory,

(CSIR) Bhubaneswar, India, (7 to 9 October2003.)

The seminar brought out various downsizedappropriate technologies available all overthe world today, which can be propagatedand adopted for improving quality of lifeand promoting sustainable development inrural areas of developing countries. Thereare proceedings for the papers, and CD cov-ering technology profiles of successful ap-propriate technologies developed by vari-ous organizations, which were distributedamong the participants.

Contact: S. Khuntia <http:-//www.rrlbhu.res.in/isdtrd>

Grove Fuel Cell Symposium

The Eighth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium -‘Building Fuel Cell Industries’ - took place24-26th September 2003 in London – withparticular emphasis on the importance of in-novation and new ideas in advancing fuelcell technology.

A large exhibition area – new for 2003 –included fuel cell and component manufac-turers and featured a dedicated Fuel CellDemonstration Area housing both fuel cell-powered vehicles and stationary hardware.

To ensure you keep pace with developmentsin both the next Conference Programmeand the upcoming exhibitions please sign-up for the Grove Fuel Cell Email List at<http://www.grovefuelcell.com>.

Delhi Sustainable DevelopmentSummit 2004

This year’s Delhi Sustainable DevelopmentSummit was held during 4 – 7 February2004 . Overall subject was, in the follow upof the Johannesburg summit: WEHAB (Wa-ter, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodi-versity).

41


Figure 3.5: Participants of PPRE Alumni-Workshop 2003 in Nairobi, Kenya

ergy meteorology were discussed.

Seminar Report

Following the end of the seminar, a com-pilation of the many papers was made.And efforts are being channelled towardsproduction of seminar publication contain-ing all the presentations, papers and eventhe field visit to Olkaria Geothermal powerplant. It is hoped that at some point thesame will be available at the PPRE website<www.ppre.de>

Conclusion Above all things this sem-inar demonstrated the need of partnershipsbetween not only countries but also institu-tions especially amongst the developed anddeveloping nations. Key among the rec-ommendations of this PPRE seminar is thatmore of them be held in developing nations,and they be oriented towards sustainable en-ergy systems. It is only within such con-textual interactions that sustainable devel-opment can be achieved and the interactionsthat the PPRE alumni have gained shall notbe laid to waste.

The following resumé was sent by AineaKimaro, Tanzania (PPRE 88/89), who par-

ticipated in the seminar:

Dear Edu and the organizing team of the2nd follow up Seminar in Nairobi: 4 – 8/-08/03, this is in much appreciation for theseminar which ended in Nairobi a week ago.Like it was clear in the Seminar, everybodywas satisfied and found the gathering youorganised very important. Not because weexchanged business cards, but because welearnt a lot more from each other; from thealumni, other invitees and from the formerlecturers. In deed, it was a source of moreinspiration and conviction on the path weare walking, that, it’s correct, and we shoulddo that faster given half a chance. As your-selves realized, the African people are veryhard working, purposeful, and with ambi-tion to make a difference in our situations.But why you had to travel all the way downhere to motivate us and not in the first placefrom political leadership here, is because inpart, the current regimes have not yet real-ized that the wealth of a nation lies within itspeople, and not on political platitudes in thefirst place. If Africa, and really sub-Sahara !gradually gets out of the jail of poverty, weshall have a substantial purchasing power,and it means our people can buy more fromGermany which is not a bad idea. In otherwords, it makes sense for your country to

40

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

And though I like the music a lot — theharmonies are rather unusual — I was al-ways kind of unsatisfied with these words,because I felt that dreams are not enough.And this is precisely where PPRE comesin, because PPRE is about doing something,PPRE is about making that dream cometrue.

In our case, “doing something” meansspreading the knowledge about RenewableEnergies around the world. This kind ofteaching is, of course, quite important forsecuring the energy supply in developingcountries. But this statement alone doeshardly do justice to the full meaning ofPPRE. We are now facing the danger ofa global climate change, and it has be-come quite obvious by now that renewableand sustainable energies are quite essentialfor the developed countries as well. Thus,PPRE is not only about transferring knowl-edge from devloped to developing countries— what is far more, PPRE is about work-ing together in order to equip ourselves withwhat is required to face the global chal-lenges that lie ahead of us. That is why you,with the particular expertise you have ac-quired in Oldenburg, are important for ourcommon future, and that is why the Instituteof Physics of the University of Oldenburg isproud that you have been here.

I should also take the opportunity to saythank you, on behalf of the Institute ofPhysics, to all those who put a lot of energyand enthusiasm into the organisation and theteaching of the PPRE courses. We all knowthat this is a hard job, certainly not fundedas well as it ought to be, but this work ishighly appreciated.

I would like to end this short note with twowishes. First, I wish good luck to all of you,wherever you may go from here, and I hopethat you will find what you have learned inOldenburg helpful for your personal carreer,and for eventually finding a good job. Andsecond, I wish to all of us that your expertise

in the field of Renewable Energies will con-tribute to the well-being of our world-widesociety, a well-being based on the respon-sible and sustainable use of energy, so thatone day, perhaps, John Lennon’s dream maycome true.

Thank you for your attention.

Fernando Vega’s speach

It feels like just last week when we firstcame to OLDENBURG. We got out of thattrain station and looked around like if it wasa completely new world. For some of us itwas. At least the looks people gave us madeus feel that way.

Nevertheless Oldenburg received us with alot of joy and friendly people. All those sto-ries about Germans being bad tempered orgrouchy or unapproachable were soon dis-covered to be not true. You can actually jokewith them!!

Amazingly soon enough words like ALDI,TSCHÜSS, KARTOFFELN were part ofour daily life.

Our studies began and with this a lot of ex-periences were lived.

I would say some were good and some werenot so good. But if we weigh the whole itwould definitely be considered a worthwhilelearning experience. With the help of thestaff things became easier and we thank youagain for that. We know that you are eagerto get on the next batch.

For these new lucky ones I say:Viel Glückand try to live every day to the fullest, thisis a beautiful environment, get to know it.Know this people, their culture, etc. Experi-ence is like a sharp knife, it can harm you orhelp you depending on whether you grab itby the blade or by the handle. After all thisis over all you can do is relax and enjoy thememories. That is what we are doing now.

Today, 14 months later I have many more

9

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

special friends from Nepal, Cameroon,Ethiopia, Colombia, Bangladesh, Indone-sia, China, Germany, Spain, Pakistan, SouthKorea and Italy.

We all came with different expectations andhopes. We take different thing back, but weat least take one asset back in common. Allthe good moments and friendships we hadtogether IN and OUT of the classroom.

I want to quote my good friend and col-league Gianpierro Nacci, who is now inLondon making arrangements for his newJob. He send an email to say good-bye. Inhis e-mail he said:

Eventually, I have discovered that friendsand human relationships are the most valu-able renewable energies.

As I Stand Before You, Class of 2003, I con-gratulate you for this accomplishment andwish you all an exiting, fruitful and success-ful career in the field of Renewable energies.

Speech of Ihtsham FarooqChoudry

Honorable Guests, Friends and PPRE Staff,

on the behalf of our group, I would like toexpress our feelings, experience and opinionabout the one-year programme of renewableenergy in Oldenburg. It is a dream for ev-ery person to get higher and better educa-tion abroad. This dream becomes the wishof life especially for those people belong-ing to developing countries. We are thank-ful to our God, and families that we gotthat opportunity and came to Germany toavail this chance for a better future. Wecame from different countries, belonging todifferent cultures, different languages, andhad different expectations. None of us everknew each other before starting this course,so we were not only strangers to each otherbut also stranger with respect to this systemand the culture of Germany. But it was verynice experience to get to know all the differ-

ent people, their languages and culture fromdifferent countries.

During this period of MSc there were someproblems, which we had to face, like theGerman language and the cold and rainyweather. Yes, we had to cope with thestrange weather of Oldenburg. With thehelp of our language teachers we were ableto solve some of our language problems,and now after this course we knowWiegeht’s dirandviel Spass!. It was really goodto learn the German language, culture andenvironment. As we knew that we had avery tight schedule and narrow timings, westarted our lectures in winter. It was sur-prising to have daily lectures from 8 pm to6 pm. We used to come to university andgo to home in darkness. We used to spendthe whole day in energy lab and we neverknew what is going on outside of the en-ergy lab and around the world, except howto make energy from biomass, what is is theI(V) characteristics for solar cells and whatis the required wind speed for wind energy.

The only enjoyment during this period wassome field trips and some power plants,which we visited. Prof. Bauer gave usknowledge about solar cells, which wasvery interesting and very difficult as it wasquite theoretical and we had to imaginemany things. Lectures with Dr. Blum werenew for us as he introduced e-learning andvirtual class for biomass and energy sys-tems. It was very new experience for all ofus and we were amazed with these lecturemethods of teaching – even it filled the harddisks in our computers.

Our ex-director, Dr. Schumacher deliv-ered nice lectures on solar energy but un-fortunately he left us at the end of the firstsemester and we missed his lectures in thesecond semester. Luckily Mr. Holtorf tookthis responsibility and he did hard work forus. With his help we really got to knowabout all the practical aspects of solar en-ergy and solar components. The indispens-

10


(ii) Training and Research inRenewable Energy

* Resource mapping (solar, wind, hydro,geothermal)

* Distance learning and advancement of REeducation

* Curriculum development - KU/Universityof Zimbabwe

* Capacity building, student exchange andstaff development

* Research funding, local regional, publicprivate

(iii) Networking and Cooperation

* International Cooperation

* Regional cooperation and programme ex-change

* North-South cooperation PPRE (Arica,Zimbabwe)

* Regional networking - West African expe-rience

* Local Networking in RE

(iv) Career And OpportunitiesFor Re Graduates From TheAfrican Region

* Analysis of Employment opportunities inRE

* Business opportunities and self employ-ment

* Career advancement in RE

(v) Emerging Issues In REDevelopment In Africa

* Poverty alleviation and RE systems inAfrica - ITDG

* Sustainable energy systems (Affordability,sustainability)

* Comparative energy technologies (con-ventional systems)

* Emerging technologies (fuel cells, tech-nology leapfrogging)

Participants A total of more than 60participants physically attended the seminar.They were mainly drawn from PPRE grad-uates of Eastern and Southern Africa andalumni from the PPRE partner program atUniversity of Zimbabwe. Additionally In-ternational renewable energy experts, prac-titioners, academics and local companies at-tended the Seminar. In terms of number ofparticipants who physically attended, Kenyahad the highest share with almost 50, Zim-babwe 15, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanza-nia, Ghana, Malawi and Rwanda. The na-ture and diversity of the participants whoattended ranged from PPRE alumni to re-newable energy experts, practitioners, aca-demics. Beside the 35 Alumni from PPREOldenburg (23), RE-Programme from Uni-versity of Zimbabwe (11) and SESAM, UniFlensburg (1), staff from PPRE- Oldenburg,REP-Zimbabwe and Kenyatta Universityalso participated. Additionally representa-tives from DAAD, UNEP and various lo-cal organisations (e.g. Solarnet, Energy Al-ternatives Africa, ITDG-EA, NEMA, etc.)completed the participants list.

The Seminar Programme Theseminar programme was divided into 2-3 daily sessions for the first three daysto cover the thematic areas earlier indi-cated. The fourth day was spent visiting theprobably biggest Geothermal power plantin Sub-Saharan Africa the Olkaria geother-mal power plant in Naivasha, some 2 hourstravel from Nairobi. The fifth and lastday was spent in an informal meeting thatsought to seek ways of further strengthen-ing the PPRE alumni network. Of which is-sues of the currently on-going Distance edu-cation module in energy economics and en-

39


at NIE, Mysore. (Accessories include, co-conut shell crusher, wood cutting machine)3) Investigation on activated carbon recov-ery and cooling tower design for gasifierplant at N.I.E., Mysore.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)has been signed between IISc, Bangaloreand CART- N.I.E., for the purpose of tech-nology dissemination. With this, the insti-tute can work as a consultancy agency to es-tablish gasifer power plants.

Seminars workshops andawareness programmes

CART - N.I.E., Zilla Panchayat (ZP) -Mysore, India and Organisation for Devel-opment of People (ODP) organized a 2 dayworkshop on the “Efficient use of renew-able energy sources for sustainable devel-opment” on 12th and 13th August 2002,during this seminar, resources persons fromIIsc, Bangalore, highlighted the technicalaspects and economics of the technology tothe participants. This was followed by avisit to gasifier plant.

Participants of National Service Scheme(NSS) officers workshop, members ofKrushi Vigyan Kendra - Talawadi, T.Nadu,India, alumni of our institute, participantsof “Best Practices in Electrical Trade work-shop”, conducted at NIE, Mysore,India,technocrats in and around Mysore, environ-mentalists, energy conscious citizens of ourcity, industrialists from local industries aresome of the visitors to the plant.


PPRE held its Fifth Follow-UpSeminar in Nairobi, Kenya

byFrancis Xavier Ochieng, Kenya (PPRE

2001/02) & Edu Knagge

Under the blazing Kenyan tropical sun thePostgraduate Programme Renewable En-ergy (PPRE) of Oldenburg University, Ger-many held its fifth follow-up seminar on Re-newable Energy from August 4th to 8th 2003.This is after earlier seminars in Nairobi1993, New Delhi - India 1996, Oldenburg1997 and Arica Chile 1999. This Semi-nar was held jointly by Kenyatta Univer-sity’s Appropriate Technology Centre at theAVU Complex Conference Hall with sup-port from DAAD. The seminar was appro-priately entitled‘Opportunities for sustain-able energy systems in Africa’ and soughtto explore renewable energy as a meansfor poverty alleviation and a vehicle forenvironmentally sound energy developmentpath for Africa. Within this context presen-tations were made along the following fivethematic areas:

• Policy Constraints and Developmentof RE in Africa

• Training And Research In RenewableEnergy

• Networking And Cooperation

• Career And Opportunities for REGraduates From The African Region

• Emerging Issues In RE DevelopmentIn Africa

Detailed Programme

(i) Policy Constraints andDevelopment of RE in Africa

* Liberalisation of electricity markets

* Integration of RE in energy planning

* Regulatory framework for RE systems

* Financing mechanisms for RE systems(CDM)

* Specific technologies including projectcase studies (Biomass, PV, Wind, SEGs,SWHs)

38

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

able thing of this course was two monthspractical training in renewable energy in-dustries. With the help of our faculty therewere places in different industries in orderto get to know the developed technologiesin renewable energy. In the second semesterwe had some interesting labs that were al-ways dependent on nice weather and we en-joyed tasty and delicious solar lunches.

During this period we realized that thiscourse is not only for studies but also fa-vorable for building strong intercultural re-lationships. During our case study it was re-ally nice to get to know practical things ofrenewable energy and with the help of HansHoltorf we did quite well.

Diana Barbu made economics very easierfor us even it was not so easy, but with herhelp we acquired some knowledge of eco-nomics of renewable energies. The last partof our course was thesis writing and ev-eryone disappeared from the screen. Daysand nights, Saturdays and Sundays all weredeadly busy for their thesis project.

But today this gathering shows our successafter sleepless nights and many days of hardwork. We would like to give some sugges-tions for this course, as not everything isperfect in this life and we should learn fromour mistakes. This program is very nice andwell managed but still there are some defi-ciencies like in our second semester we hadsome problems in our lectures. There arevery intelligent professors but they are busyin their research work so it is our wish thatthey should give more time to this course.

For the practical training no doubt our man-agement did well to get places for us, butunfortunately some of our colleagues werenot able to get a place. In the future it shouldbe organized that everyone can get place inthe industries.

For the new PPRE students we would liketo say that do not only concentrate on yourstudies but also try to mix with this intercul-

tural group of people. We are grateful to ourprofessors and the staff of PPRE for help-ing and guiding us in the whole last yearduring this course. At the end we wouldsay that we started this course as a inho-mogeneous group of people, but we sharedour studies, encouraged each other, helpedeach other, spent a very nice time togetherand now when we have finished our degrees,going to our destinations, and leaving thisplace, we have come so close that we willmiss this time in Oldenburg and each otherquite a lot.

I would like to quote the sentence from ourfriend Gianpiero thatHuman relations andfriendship is the most valuable renewableenergy.

Thank you.

Present PPRE 2003/04

The present PPRE batch started in October2003 with 19 students, eleven from Asia,four from Europe, three from South Amer-ica and one from Africa. Their names andcountry of orgin are given below (see ta-ble 1.2):

Their practical training was quite inter-national: Australia, India, Nepal, South-Africa, Mali and France – of course somestayed in Germany, in cities like Bremen,Duisburg, Wuppertal, and Oldenburg —nobody remained without a nice trainingplacement. The Students are right now

busy in doing their thesis project. On 10th

September they will be graduated. Maybesome of you could see them at their gradua-tion ceremony.

Practical Training Experience

by Iresha S. Palle B., Sri Lanka (PPRE2003/04)

Björn Kuntze is PPRE alumini (1994/95)

11

NEWS FROM OLDENBURG

Table 1.2: PPRE 2003/04

Name Country Ext. Training

Veneranda M., Nicolás E. Argentina JUWI, MainzAhmed, Firoz Uddin Bangladesh GTZ, EschbornAman, Julia Bangladesh GTZ, EschbornAjamah, Ferdinand Cameroon SSD-EN, MaliSanchez C., Julio Colombia Garrad Hassan , OlMitra, Indradip India ISET, KasselLawless, Richard Ireland Env. Consult., Copenhagen,Han, Seong-sook South Korea Wuppertal InstituteTrinh Viet, Hieu Vietnam Bremen Energy InstituteSarran, Mathieu France Wind Consultancy, FranceBröer, Torsten Germany Rural Elektr. Proj., IndiaMichel, Andreas Germany GTZ, South AfricaBandlamudi, George C. India ZBT, DuisburgHusainova, Farida Kyrgyzstan Univ. CanberraDosmalinov, Meirzhan A. Kazakhstan EHF, OldenburgPossamai, Everson Brazil Project GmbH, OldenburgPalle B., Iresha S. Sri Lanka MasterGas, BremenBajracharya, Prashun R. Nepal Biogas Project, NepalYandri, Erkata Indonesia Planet, Oldenburg

Figure 1.3: PRE 2003/04 in a traditional harbour town during the wind excursion.

12

PROJECTS

to 2" procured from local dealers at a cost ofaround Rs.1800 / ton ( 1$ = Rs.46/-).

Waste wood pieces generated in our carpen-try shop, is also used as fuel for the gasifierplant after cutting it to the required size.

Infrastructure

The gasifier plant is housed in a well ven-

tilated structure of 90 m2 area adjacent tothe diesel generator room of the institute. Astorage space is also provided to stock thecoconut shells when purchased in bulk.

Performance of the gasifier plant

With the technology from IISc, M/s. Ener-green Power Limited., Chennai, fabricatedand installed the plant. The plant was com-missioned in November -2001 and imme-diately the plant started operating on trailmode. Also, there was an initial delay inidentifying a good supplier to supply thespecified type of biomass at the right price.

The test phase of the plant was successfullycompleted after incorporating the sugges-tions from IISc, Bangalore as detailed be-low.

a. Some modifications were done to the ashextraction unit of the plant to improve thegas cleaning process and also to optimizethe efficiency of the plant.b. The cooling system was modified to im-prove the flow rate of water.

The gasifier plant was formally inauguratedon 25th May 2002 by Dr. Shivalingaiah,Director KREDAL, (Karnataka RenewableEnergy Development Authority Limited),Bangalore and Dr.H.S.Mukunda, Chief Ex-ecutive, ABETS ( Advanced Bio-residueEnergy Technologies), IISc, was the chiefguest.

After modifications and fine-tuning theplant is currently working with a diesel re-

placement of around 70 to 75%.

Further improvement and optimisation ofthe plant could be done to enhance its per-formance. Semi-automation, improved gascleaning and cooling system, treatment ofwastewater, byproduct recovery, noise re-duction from the diesel engine sets, aresome of the immediate tasks that need to bedone.

Byproduct recovery

Activated carbon is one of the byproductsgenerated from the plant. A student projectwas done to find ratio of input biomass toactivated carbon generated and to evaluateits iodine number. Based on the experimen-tation and analysis, about 4 to 6% of the in-put biomass are recovered as activated char-coal and it has an iodine number in the rangeof 400 to 500 .

We have started using activated coal tofuel the open hearth furnaces in thesmithy/forging section of our institute. Thishas resulted in stopping the procurement ofcoal from outside. Based on the informa-tion provided by the Mechanical Engineer-ing Department of our institute, 1250 kg ofcoal was being consumed by this shop annu-ally. All this has been completely replacedby about 600 kg of activated carbon residue.

Research and consultancy

One of the major activity carried at the gas-fier power plant is the research and studentlevel project works. Students and the fac-ulty members of the institute are actively in-volved in many ongoing projects. The titlesof student projects that have been taken uptill date:

1) Performance study of 75 KW biogasifierplant at N.I.E., Mysore and development ofgasifer performance evaluator software.2) Design of accessories for the gasifer plant

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PROJECTS

Figure 3.4: View of 75 kW gasifier at CART

Mysore. Since the past 10 years, this cen-tre is addressing issues pertaining to sus-tainable development, Appropriate technol-ogy, and Renewable energy in the Mysoreregion. CART has established a 75 kg/hcapacity biomass gasifier plant in the insti-tute premises. About 30 to 40% of the en-ergy requirement of the institute can be metfrom the electricity generated by the gasi-fier plant. Coconut shells and waste woodare currently used as fuel. The plant issponsored by Department of Energy, Gov-ernment of Karnataka. The technologyprovider is the Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore.

Objective of the project:

The plant is currently in operation for 6 to8 hours a day, meeting the following objec-tives:

1. Checking the viability of the biomassgasification technology both techni-cally and economically.

Table 3.1: Specifications of Gasifier plant inN.I.E.

Parameter Specification

Type Open top down draftRating 75 kWh

Feed stock solid biomass

gas composition

CO: 20%;CH4: 3%;H4: 20%;CO2: 12%;and rest N2

calorific value of gas 4.5 MJ/kgGenerator 100 KVA, 1500 rpm

2. Disseminating the technology amongpublic, student community, educators,industries, administrators, and farm-ers.

3. As a research initiative and as projectwork at both faculty and student levelin the area of gasification technology.

4. Reducing load on local electricitygrid.

Working principle

The main elements of the system are:

1. Reactor2. Cooler3. Filter.

The reactor receives air through air inlet.Woody biomass (coconut shells) is fed tothe reactor from the top. After ignition,gases are released due to pyrolysis. Thisgas goes through the cooler for reduction oftemperature to near ambient levels. The gasis then passed through filters to clean off thedust particles. The output from the filter istaken to the existing 75 kW engine or to aburner.

Fuel for the gasifier plant

Coconut shell is currently used as main fuel.Cleaned, dry and broken shells in sizes of 1"

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

and he is one of the owners of a gasifica-tion technology company called MasterGasGmbH (www.mastergas.de). I was fortunateto do practical training with him. During mypractical training, we were able to design acomplete gasification plant. The design isfor a galvanizing plant in Sri Lanka and theprice of complete system is quite attractive,because parts of qasifier will be fabricatedin Sri Lanka and the rest of the componentswill be imported from Germany.

It is a multistage low-tar gasifier. In themultistage gasification process, the pyrol-ysis and the gasification process are sepa-rated into two different zones. In betweenthe pyrolysis and the gasification zones, thevolatiles from the pyrolysis are partially ox-idised. Hereby, most of the tars are decom-posed into gas. So the percentage of tar insyngas is very low.

Operation is completely controled by a PLCbased control system and it is designed forcontinously running operation.

PPRE Web Site

The PPRE web site has been refurbishedand is now under further extension & ren-ovation.

You will find a new PPRE brochure onlineat<http://www.ppre.de/about/>

NEWS FROM PPREALUMNI IN BRIEF

Ramon Gómez Vilar, Spain (PPRE1997/98) Ramon wrote: “since longtime ago, I have the intention to write somelines for the PPRE newsletter. Since I cameback from Oldenburg, I have been workingon solar thermal and PV. I changed job placeonce, from a limited company to a cooper-ative, but I do similar kind of job. Besidestechnical issues, I participate in the cooper-

Figure 2.1: PV System at Bus Stop in Mal-lorca / Spain

ative organisation. It is something related to"sustainable development" as I understand,because our funds do not belong to a capi-talist who does not work, and our profit re-mains in the cooperative to assure workingplaces (I hope).

Here is an example of what we can do: to-gether with three partners we realised a PVgrid-connected system in the new centralbus-stop of Palma de Mallorca. There are235.98 kWp, and 74 inverters. PV moduleshave a secondary function so they protectbusses from sun and rain. (See the picturesin fig. 2.1)

You can connect on-line to the pv central,at: <http://www.solarta.com/emt>and seeif the sun is shining in Mallorca.”

<mailto:[email protected]>

Sham Sundar Subbarao, India(PPRE 1999/00) I like to inform youthat we, Centre for Appropriate Rural Tech-nologies at National Institute of Engineer-ing, Mysore, India (CART-NIE) have antied up with Indian Institute Of Science(IISc), Bangalore, to disseminate gasifi-cation technology. The patented downdraft gasifiers for power generation fromIISc, Bangalore is currentley available from20kW up to 500kW.

Local manufacturers have been assignedto fabricate and commission the downdraftgasifiers by IISc in India. Some gasifers

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

have been shipped to European countries(e.g. Switzerland).

A 75kW wood gasifier is currently function-ing at our Institute to meet the base load,power requirements (see p. 35).

You can contact us for further informationon these gasifier systems: Sham SundarSubbarao, Co-ordinator, Centre for Appro-priate Rural Technologies (CART), N.I.E.,Mysore- 570008, India.

<mailto:[email protected]>,<mailto:[email protected]>

James Wafula (PPRE 1992/93)ALIVE AND KICKING IN THE SUN —Hi, yes I am still alive and kicking. I amstill very much in the field of RE. I amvery much rooted in the Kenyan country-side installing PV systems for homes andschools, running a battery charging sta-tion, and offering computer literacy pack-ages amongst other services to members ofmy community. I moved from Nairobi aboutthree years ago and therefore do not operatemy post box there any more. My currentpostal address is box 4256 Kitale, Kenya.So James is running his own PV-company,called Solar Home Power in Kitale, Kenya.He informed us that he just completed oneof his biggest PV solar home systems inDecember 2003, which has 150 Wp. Hepromised to send some pictures of the instal-lation in due course. James also took part inthe PPRE-Alumni workshop in Nairobi inSummer 2004 (please see respective articleon page 38) and in April-June 2004 Jamesstayed with ZSW (Dr. H. Gabler – formerPPRE staff member) in Stuttgart and alsovisited Oldenburg.

<[email protected]>

Marco Peter, Germany (PPRE2002/03) joined RALOS-company,Germany, right after his studies in Old-enburg. He was in charge of PV system

installation. Since early November Marcois working for a company called GrammerSolar, which is located in Amberg nearNürnberg, Germany. Grammer-Solar isthought to be Germany’s leading com-pany in the field of solar air collectors.Grammer also deals with solar-thermaland biomass co-gen sets and the companyis placed in a so called zero-emissionbuilding. Further info you might get from:<www.grammer-solar-bau.de>

Bahy Saad Ab-del Mesih, Egypt(PPRE 2001/2002) was send by hisemployer to visited Ulm, Germany for sev-eral weeks in November 2003. Bahy joinedthe brand new German University in Cairoas physics lecturer recently. Among othershe has to give physics tutorials (exercises,labs) for 180 students who are majoring inengineering and pharmacy. In addition, hewill be responsible for the demonstrationand practical lab that started Feb. 15, 2004).Actually he used the visit to Ulm as kind ofpreparation for his teaching position.

Shao Jie, China (PPRE 2002/03)wrote:‘It is a long time not hearing from youand I hope you are fine. I am very sorryfor contacting you so late. I have safely re-turned to China at the end of September, butunfortunately, I was ill after my arrival atHainan and now I am recovering.

Like what you have told us that the timepassed very quickly, one year is a very shortperiod in one person’s life but it moved meso much and I have gained not only thetechnologies and acknowledges in renew-able energy but also the friendship from allof our friends and colleagues and the spritof the German, rigorous and sincere. I willkeep them forever. I would like to saythanks a lot to you for the past whole yearand good luck for the coming future. Keep-ing contact’

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PROJECTS

through a common platform will help foster-ing sustainable energy projects and spread-ing good-practice-examples. With this viewpoint, a new initiative called WISIONS7

is taken up by the Wuppertal Institute forClimate, Environment and Energy with thesupport of ProEvolution, a Swiss-basedfoundation. The project aims at foster-ing and communicating sustainable devel-opment through two different approaches. Itsupports the realisation of new project ideason one hand to spreading knowledge aboutexisting successful projects on the other. In-ternationally accepted criteria such as tech-nical and economic feasibility, replicabilityand, environmental benefits form the guide-lines for selecting promising and innovativeprojects. One approach of WISIONS, theSustainable Energy Project Support (SEPS),aims at supporting strategically importantprojects still waiting for being implementedin the field of renewable energy and energyefficiency. The Wuppertal Institute will se-lect promising ideas and support them withits expertise, decisive contacts or by financ-ing incremental costs for overcoming the fi-nal barriers that hinders the process of im-plementation. The other approach of WI-SIONS, the Promotion of Resource Effi-ciency Projects (PREP), primarily focuseson fostering means and concepts for sus-tainable energy and resource efficiency op-timisation. The project intends to build aplatform and invite people across the worldto share knowledge and highlight "goodpractice"-examples. The most convincingapproaches will be selected and communi-cated to different target groups, multipli-ers and decision-makers through a brochureand the Internet. The project focuses onone topic in the field of resource efficiencyover a selected number of months. Thetopic and the target groups thus will varywith the objective of addressing a widerange of issues and stakeholders. The first

7<http://www.wisions.net> provides detailedinformation about the project

subject deals with "energy-efficiency in theconstruction sector", a field where efficientuse of resources is needed that influencethe resource and energy demands of tomor-row. WISIONS addresses actions and peo-ple in the whole world in fields that are cru-cial for building a more sustainable world.Through the publication on the Internet andthe brochures the projects will obtain thedeserved publicity and also provide certainideas for more people in other countries toimprove the efficient and sufficient use ofresources. An exchange of ideas and con-cepts thus is promoted on a wide scale. Fi-nally, with the combination of supportingnot yet realized project ideas and alreadyimplemented successful projects, WISIONSenhances chances of knowledge transferfrom practical experience to action. I hopethe project brief shows enough clarity andis able to convince readers with its objec-tives. Being a member of this project, it is akind invitation for all to approach WISIONSfor your standing concepts in the specificfield of sustainable energy and resource effi-ciency and share good examples in the spe-cific fields that needs exposure to adopt inother part of the world8.

Biomass Gasifier Plant atNational Institute of Engineering,Mysore

by Sham Sundar Subbarao9

The “Centre For Appropriate Rural tech-nologies” [CART], is established at TheNational Institute of Engineering (N.I.E.),

8Your proposal and good practice examples canbe submited at<[email protected]>

9Adress of Author: Mr. Sham Sundar Subbarao,Operations, Biomass Gasifier Power Plant,Co-ordinator, CART (Centre for AppropriateRural Technologies), The National InstituteOf Engineering, Mysore-570008, Karnataka/ India. e-mail:<[email protected]>,<[email protected]>

35

PROJECTS

users and individual owners will require in-formation regarding how to design a sys-tem where to buy wind energy equipment,maintenance requirement and user supportamong others.

Research coordination anddissemination

Useful output from wind research con-ducted by universities and other researchcentres is not shared comprehensively withgovernment planners and private sectorbusinesses for the benefit of development.To effectively develop the market large in-vestments will be required for awarenessand promotion of the technology, the devel-opment of credible wind databases, training,and businesses infrastructure for wind. Thisundertaking is beyond the budget of the pri-vate sector and will require public supportfrom governments, donors and developmentpartners.

Bibliography

1. Oludhe C 2003, Wind EnergyResource Assessment and Mappingfor Kenya, Department ofMeteorology, University of Nairobi

2. Mike Bergey, Small Wind Systemsfor Village Energy Supply, VillagePower 2000 Washington, DC,December 4-8, 2000 Bergey WindPower Co.

3. Marlett Wentzel, Wind energy: THESESSA perspective, SustainableEnergy Society of Southern Africa,ESI Africa 2 2002.

4. René Karottki, Jason Schäffler andDouglas Banks, Wind Energy InSouth Africa - Time To Implement,Renewable Energy World May ’June2001’, James & James (SciencePublishers) Ltd

WISIONS: Fostering sustainableenergy projects and spreadinggood-practice-examples ofresource-efficiency

by Anand Shukla (PPRE 2001/02)6

Fossil fuels and conventional technologieshave led to deteriorating environmental con-ditions and changes in the world’s cli-mate. It is a global agenda of adopting pol-icy measures for emissions reduction andpractice sustainable development strategies.The concept of sustainable development hasbeen widely accepted, which includes emis-sions abatement as one of the importantparameters among others such as efficientuse of available resources and applicationof clean energies and fuels. Experienceshave shown the broad use of fossil fuels andconventional technologies lead to climatechange and exert health and environmen-tal hazards through dangerous emissions,leading to high social and economic costs.The concept of sustainable development hasbeen formulated, which considers emissionreduction as one of the factors among otherssuch as efficient use of available resourcesand application of clean energies and fuels.Increasing attention is being paid globallyon ‘renewable energy’ for restructuring theglobal energy systems. One important ex-ample of it is the International Conferencefor Renewable Energies (renewables2004),which was held in June 2004 in Bonn, Ger-many. This conference is expected to speed-ing up the process of increasing the share ofrenewable energies in total primary energyconsumption and, more important, bringpolicies into local action. Wearing promis-ing ideas and approaches from local ac-tions is relevant for its replication. There-fore, creating a knowledge-base and sharingpromising ideas and innovative approaches

6present address:Wuppertal Institute for Cli-mate, Environment and Energy, Döppersberg19, D-42103 Wuppertal, Germany.

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Figure 2.2: Orlando Perez, 2nd from left

Orlando Perez, Bolivia (PPRE1996/97) became President of Directo-rio del Capitulo PES IEEE Bolivia (seefig. 2.2).

The IEEE is a non-profit, technical pro-fessional association of more than 360,000individual members in approximately 175countries. The full name is the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.,although the organization is most popularlyknown by its acronym.

Through its members, the IEEE is a lead-ing authority in technical areas ranging fromcomputer engineering, biomedical technol-ogy and telecommunications, to electricpower, aerospace and consumer electronics,among others.

Bernard Osawa, Kenya (PPRE1996-97) wrote, that the consultancy heis employed for did change their name after10 years of service from former Energy Al-ternatives Africa (EAA) Ltd. to nowadaysEnergy for Sustainable development Africa(ESDA), which reads similar to the name oftheir partners in the UK.

Mzumbe Musa, Tanzania (PPRE1999-2000) became representative of

the International Association for the Ex-change of Students for Technical Experi-ence (IAESTE), which is a confederationof National Committees representing aca-demic, industrial and student interests. EachNational Committee is responsible for theadministration of the exchange in its owncountry. In Tanzania IAESTE was foundedin 2002 and during the first year they werealready able to send 10 trainees abroad andmanaged to arranged 2 training places forstudents from abroad.

Enhbold Ulziisuren, Mongolia(PPRE 1999-2000) joined the EnergyDepartment of MCS International Co.Ltdas Renewable Energy Expert, where he isin charge of importing of RE systems andsupervise installation.

Some time later he wrote: ‘Hallo friends–how are you? I am very interesting CHP (combined heat and power) with a Stirlingengine fired with coal or wood – from 1.5kWe to 200 kWe power. Please send mea manufacture website adresse.’ Enhboldtells that he now works with Intersolar LLCUlaanbaatar Mongolia.

Jordi Avellaneda de la Calle,Spain (PPRE 2001/2002) joinedINNOVA SCCL, Mataró, spain after hisstudies with us in 2002 and he informedus that he finished his first two PV grid-connected installations (each 3.8 kWp), onthe roof of two schools in a village nearhis home town. Info about his company:<www.innova.coop>.

Later Jordi did move from INNOVA toan even bigger consultancy, called SO-LARING, which is located in Castellde-fels and also informed us that he will starthis MBA studies in October 2004 at IESE(Barcelona).

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Alemu Tadesse, Ethiopia (PPRE1999/2000) became member of theDeutschklub and African Club, while doinghis PhD studies at University of Connecticutin the USA.

Quockhanh Nguyen, Vietnam(PPRE 2000/01) who is doing hisPhD at Bremer Energie Institute, Germany,was invited to PPRE to give a lectureon "Application of GIS for renewableenergy resource assessment" for the presentstudents in early December 2003.

Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo,Ghana (PPRE 1997/98) who isstill working with the Ministry of Energyin Ghana, took part in a conference onEnergy for Poverty alleviation in Africa,which was held end of November 2003in Nairobi, Kenya. During the conferencehe met Bernard Osawa, Kenya. He alsoattend the recent Alumni Summerschool inOldenburg.

Ramesh Muthya Praneshrao, In-dia (PPRE 1988/89) who is em-ployed at Centre of Wind Energy, Indiainformed us that they organized an inter-national training workshop on wind en-ergy in early December 2003. Detailsare downloadable from their web page<www.cwet.tn.nic.in>

Manoj Khadka, Nepal (PPRE2002/03) is presently working in thefield of solar energy in Nepal in a privatecompany (called Lasersun Energy Pvt Ltd)dealing with institutional and solar homesystems. For instance Manoj designed asystem of about 2 kW providing electricityto communication system, computers andlights. Additionally Manoj is workingas freelance consultant in Kathmanduorganising training and taking classes in

that training. He considers the job veryinteresting most of the times, but thegeneral conditions in Nepal not so good atthe moment.

Karsten Woelk, Germany (PPRE1995/96) after a long period of silenceKarsten informed us recently that he isworking presently with a big solarthermalcompany, called Solvis-Solar1, which is lo-cated at Braunschweig. He enjoys life andhis job very much. Further info of Solvis-Solar are available at<www.solvis.de>

Cesar Rivasplata from Peru(PPRE 1988/89) informed us brieflythat he is still working in the field of Re-newable energies and at the same universityin Peru, which is Universidad de Tacna, inthe very South-West of the country. Theydoing projects on PV and solar thermal:heating water, swimming pools, cooking,etc.

Binu Parthan, India (PPRE 1997/98) went for a couply of days to Ghanain February 2004, where he conducted a twodays workshop on of RETScreen (pleasesee fig. 2.3). The workshop was aimedat introducing participants to RET cost-benefit analysis, performance anaysis andGHG emission analysis and to course ma-terials developed by the CANMET En-ergy Technology Centre. Further details ofthe workshop:<http://www.retscreen.net/-ang/11_form1.php>.

Binu was actually quite impressed by thelevel of energy expertise in Ghana andalso the popularity and influence ofWisdomAhiataku-Togobo(PPRE 97/98). Of coursethe two PPRE fellow students had a goodtime in Ghana together and also used the

1present PPRE batch visited this company lastfall guided by Mr. Hans Holtorf

16

PROJECTS

Figure 3.3: A Least-Cost Option for Small Power: Typical Costs at 10 kW Capacity

production volumes and historical lack ofsubsidies), reliability problems, inadequatedesigns and lacking capacity to install andmaintain systems have led to an extremelylow uptake. In contrast PV has over timeand with plenty of private sector supportgained credible awareness levels and is in-creasingly becoming a household article inKenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Thus othertechnologies have received a limelight andmore private and public investment. A highlevel of awareness needs to be developed forsmall wind systems.

Policy directive and incentive

In the early 20th century electricity gener-ation and transformation and transmissiontechnologies supported the idea that ’big isbetter’ a view that is a still held by manyAfrican governments. Over the last 10 yearsthe technology dynamic is being reversedin favour of distributed power generation.The challenge now is to develop policies to

encourage consumers to become producersthrough use of wind and other renewablesources. The wind energy boom in Europehappened as a result of specific policy di-rectives and incentives. Policies that sup-port and cross-subsidise wind and other dis-tributed energy sources need to be put inplace.

Wind energy data

One of the most crucial pieces of informa-tion needed when elevating wind energy po-tential of any given area or site is reliablewind data. Unfortunately and for unclearreasons, wind resources have been system-atically underestimated. Maps of the spatialpatterns of the average wind speed and windpower densities prevailing wind directionsfrequency distribution of the wind speed in-cluding seasonal variability are imperative.Investors and developers require access tosuch information before any meaningful in-vestment can be made. On the other hand,

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PROJECTS

the process of developing regional and na-tional maps that will include wind energyresources. This is a good first step towardsestablishing the wind potential, which is es-sential for future development and planningof wind energy system.

Comparing costs

Although small wind systems involve a sig-nificant initial investment, they can be com-petitive with conventional energy sources ona life-ycle basis. The Economics of remotewind systems is dependent on choice of sys-tem including storage technology, the windresource at site, electricity tariff and avail-able financing and incentives. These issuesare very user and site specific thus makingthe discussion of remote system economicsnon-generic. The cost effectiveness of windsystem relative to PV or gensets cannot bedetermined solely by comparing the initialand annual operating costs. This is becausethese systems rely on different fuels that areavailable at different times. For example asolar system without a battery cannot workat night. Therefore a careful analysis of en-ergy needs is essential to design an optimalremote energy system. With reasonable as-sumptions concerning discount rates, capac-ity factors and fuel cost, micro-hydro andwind turbines can have the lowest life cy-cle costs in locations where the resource issufficient. (Figure 3.3)

The future: addressing impediments asmuch as solar home systems are convenientand appropriate, they are not a silver bul-let for distributed low energy rural electri-

information tool for energy planners andproject developers, including regional and na-tional maps of solar and wind energy re-sources. SWERA is also developing a geo-graphical information system (GIS) interfacethat will allow easy access to data and thushelp the screening and pre investment evalua-tion of wind and solar energy-base renewableenergy project.

fication. There is a large bracket of ru-ral consumers that often want more than200Wh per day. For low load applications(< 10kWh/day), wind-PV hybrid systemsare very attractive while for larger applica-tions wind diesel-hybrid systems are suit-able. The utilization of small wind elec-tric converters within the region is being im-peded by several barriers despite the highdemand for increased access to electricityand modern energy services in off grid areasand a huge potential for income generationthrough businesses. However with targetedand concerted efforts these barriers can beovercome resulting in a wider adoption ofsmall wind electric systems.

Key measures to accelerate the use of windenergy that could provide a model for fur-ther development include:

Next Generation PPRE StudentsDuring Field Trip On Wind Energy

Awareness and technologyavailability

Government planners, developers, investorsand private sector businesses do not seemto be aware of the potential for and capa-bility of small wind electric systems. Rele-vance, functionality and suitability of smallwind electric systems as means of improvedaccess to electricity in rural or off grid set-tings are still not understood by many play-ers. The low awareness and understand-ing of the technology, coupled with poorproduct availability (i.e. high costs; low

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Figure 2.3: Binu lecturing RETscreen inGhana

time to see the rural area and some renew-able energy installations in the countrysideas well.

Ernest Mazimpaka, Rwanda(PPRE 2001/02) returned to his dutiesat Universite Nationale du Rwanda, Facultyof Sciences and Technology, Departmentof Environmental Physics, where he con-tinued lecturing right after his return fromOldenburg in 2002.

Dr. Gabriel R. Kassenga, Tan-zania (PPRE 1992/93) wrote: Hi!Edu, I hope that you are doing fine. I fin-ished my PhD program in EnvironmentalEngineering at Louisiana State University inUSA in May 2003. My area of researchwas Treatment of Chlorinated Volatile Or-ganic Compounds Using Wetland Systems.I am back in Tanzania teaching undergrad-uate and post graduate students of Environ-mental Engineering Department at the Uni-versity College of Lands and ArchitecturalStudies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Nextsemester, I will teach a subject on Renew-able Energy Resources and Technology tostudents pursuing MSc Programme in En-vironmental Management and Technology.I am also doing research and consultancyservices in environmental engineering and

management field. My regards to every-body.

Ainea Kimaro, Tanzania (PPRE1989/90) wrote us earlier this year, thathe is still very actice in the Biogas field.Last December for instance he built a biogasunit for his parents and in the new way ofhis inoculation theory (he developed). Theold design he constructed first already in1991 under his own house and its still do-ing fine. This year Ainea is tasked to man-age installation of 4 systems with the newdesign, each with a capacity of 700 cubicmeters, which will be implemented at localprisons. Ainea promised to keep track onhis projects.

Fernando Vega, Honduras (PPRE2002/93) joined a wind energy consul-tancy called Windguard in Varel (near Old-enburg) after finishing studies with us. Hestarted as trainee and is facing a great practi-cal learning experience. In fact Fernando isinvolved in wind farm analysis and determi-nation of power curves of existing turbines.He most probably will stay with this com-pany until end of this year.

Bekala Ibrahim, Ethiopia (PPRE1997/98) wrote last year: ‘I just re-ceived your wonderful Newsletter 1/2003.It is really wonderful that will keep us intouch by sharing lots of information what isup there and about the activities of the PPREstudents. Thanks a lot, I am always happy toreceive it. It has been a long long time sinceyou heard from me. As for me, every thingis going well here. Presently I am work-ing at the Ministry of Infrastructure in theStrategic Planning Department as a seniorenergy expert. The Ministry of Infrastruc-ture is a newly structured government body.Under the Ministry, there are fourteen su-pervisory institutions: That are directly in-volved in the development, expansion and

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

provision of infrastructures and services tothe public and regulatory bodies responsiblefor implementing government policy by is-suing licenses, setting tariffs, etc. The Min-istry, being at the top, is the one who un-dertake policy matters and sectors plans, setoverall direction, monitor development ac-tivities, and develop administration systems(identifying investment priorities, preparingand reviewing of sector policy, strategy, di-rectives, and guidelines). Besides I am amother of a girl (three years old) and a boy(only five months old).’

Tang Hui, China (PPRE 2000/01)is still employed at WindSolar Companyin Beijing, China. After his PPRE-studiesTang Hui started a practical training atWindSolar, Germany from where he wentdirectly to his present duties at the chineseoffice. He wrote us: ‘I am fine, and stillcontinue my job with WindSolar. Peoplehere are fighting against SARS, and I re-duced my activities also. However, I am stillfine. Take care of yourself, and please takemy regards to all!’

Milorad Nikolic, Germany (PPRE1995/96) by mid of last year he left Al-berta, Canada to join the University of Vic-toria, where he joined the Dept. of Greekand Roman Studies. Milo is continuing hisPhD studies there.

Muiruri J. Kimani, Kenya (PPRE1989/90) is living in Austria these days,where he moved early 2003 to undergoa postgraduate Programme on ‘Peace andConflict Studies’, which he finished in May2004! Kimani hopes that he can help allthose deadly conflicts back home in nearfuture. Furthermore he thinks about tak-ing it even to the next higher level in termsof studies since the conflicts are becomingmore complex.

Dr. Kedar Shanker Shrestha,Nepal (PPRE 1992/93) who is liv-ing with his family in Japan, joined anew company about one year ago. His isworking for NSK-Warner K.K, Core Ma-terial Group, Engineering Department inShizuoka, Japan. His duties are relatedto ATF (automatic transmission fluid) andCVT (continuous variable transmission) ofvehicles, which is actually similar to his pre-vious tasks at his former employer Exxon-mobile, although the research approach islittle different.

Richard Morris, Australia (PPRE1996/97) left his previous employer Al-stom, to start his own company, calledZe-botec – <www.zebotec.de>, here in Ger-many. One of their new products is a1.2kW fuel cell demonstrator for laborato-ries, which Zebotec is offering to Universi-ties and other educational institutions. Justrecently Richard moved with his family toa small town located directly at the shore ofthe Bodensee (Lake Constance) in the verysouth of Germany. Richard also gave a pre-sentation during the Alumni Summerschool2004 (see page 5).

Alger Gil Guerrero, Mexico (PPRE2000/01) moved in January 2004 per-manently to Montréal, Québec. He wrote:“I am still working in wind energy projectsin México and Latin America in general andin this case partially for Québec region, allof this for a Canadian company. The com-pany is GPCo inc. They recently started tohave some interest to expand their businesspossibilities to the south of our continent.More info about the company you find un-der<http://www.gpco.ca>.At the office theworking environment is completely bilin-gual and multicultural (personnel from Eng-land, France and Algeria work there, someof them even speak Spanish) so in my firststages I will be reporting results in English.”

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PROJECTS

able Development Africa (ESDA) Ltd de-scribes the current potential and uptake ofthis technology in the Eastern region. Smallwind systems can supply energy to house-holds and businesses through hybrid or bat-tery based systems. Rural households re-quire modern energy for lighting, radio andTV, while businesses require electricity forlighting, entertainment, and refrigeration.The incidence of lead-acid battery chargingstations and battery systems in house holdsand businesses in Africa provide clear in-dication of this demand. Although thereare many examples of wind powered waterpumps projects even in the remote parts ofAfrica, there are few examples of projectsto produce electricity from small wind sys-tems. Where wind electric systems exist,these have in the past been driven by set-tlers, missionaries and donors especially forhealth facilities, community and educationcentres.

Though technically successful, the infras-tructure to sustain ably deliver and supportthem in the long term has not been devel-oped. Lack of data on wind source, pooravailability and low awareness of the tech-nology has led to a situation where energyplanners recommend tried and tested tech-nologies like PV and gensets thus pushingwind to the periphery especially for smallamounts of electrical energy. Micro andsmall wind energy converters can be used instand-alone or hybrid configuration to sup-ply power and charge batteries are avail-able in the international market and rangein size from 100W to 50kW and typicallyrequire lower wind speeds of approximately3 to 4.5m/s. Even though a comprehensivewind data is not available for most of theregion, there are many suitable sites in Er-itrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzaniaand Uganda4.

While in general East Africa’s location

4From personal work and travel experiencewithin east Africa

within the equatorial region does not favourstrong and persistent winds like those expe-rienced in the extra-tropical regions, manylocations possess relatively strong and per-sistent wind with considerable wind powerpotential throughout the year. Complex to-pographical features and the varying na-ture of surfaces including large inland wa-ter bodies have marked influence in modify-ing wind speed profiles thus making manylocations possess substantial wind energypotential. In comparison to develop windsites in Denmark where the annual aver-age wind speed (at 10 meters height) was4.7 m/s over a 10 year period (Danish En-ergy Agency, 1999) for example, the windsource in east Africa is substantial, espe-cially for countries with long coastlines andmountain ranges. Studies conducted inKenya show that the north-eastern and thecoastal areas have wind speeds greater than4.0m/s and wind power densities greaterthan 150 W/msq while the Marsabit regionhas the highest wind speeds of more than10.0 m/s and wind power densities of morethat 1000 W/msq.

While avcomprehensive wind atlas is non-existent, wind data are however not com-pletely missing. Bits of data are avail-able from meteorological stations and canbe analyst to give very good indications ofwind potentials. The SWERA5 project is in

5UNEP’s Solar and wind Energy resource as-sessment (SWERA) aims at developing new

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PROJECTS

matured and proven in Nepal. There aremany companies in Nepal doing the man-ufacturing and installation of these plants inNepal. The water from the river is divertedto get required head and it can be used todrive the turbine bringing the water from theforebay tank through penstock pipe. Theturbine in turn drives the generator to gener-ate electricity and it can be distributed to theload centers through the transmission anddistribution networks. This electricity canbe used for the domestic lighting as wellas to run small scale industries like agro-processing, poultry, saw mill, bakery etc.The construction of this isolated grids notonly decreases high transmission cost butalso fulfils the requirements of rural peo-ple in the rural community. One of the ma-jor benefit of the electricity in the villagecould be the reduction of the drudgery of thewomen and some level of entrepreneurshipwill also be established in the village due towhich several employment opportunity willbe established in these rural areas.

While talking about sustainable develop-ment, it is the right of people to get elec-tricity in all parts of the country. The ur-ban load centers could benefit from the na-tional grid whereas rural areas could bene-fit from micro-hydro plants. Realising thisfact HMG has also given high priority tothis sector and now it is also included inthe planning documents. For the promotionof the alternative energy, HMG has formedan Alternative Energy promotion Center(AEPC) under the ministry of Science andTechnology. In this sector the Danish Gov-ernment is providing financial and techni-cal support and an Energy Sector Assis-tance Programme (ESAP) has been signedbetween HMG and DANIDA. For the devel-opment of of micro-hydro, Mini grid Sup-port Programme(MGSP) is established un-der ESAP and is providing financial sub-sidy adhering to the government policy forthe construction of micro-hydro plants. Forthis micro-hydro area center is established

in the regional level and for the eastern re-gion Namsaling Community DevelopmentCenter (NCDC) has been selected by MGSPto work as an area center. Through the areacenter technical as well as financial sup-port is provided to the interested commu-nity. From this program more emphasis islaid on the sustainability of these plants bythe promotion of end-uses and proper oper-ation and management of these plants. InNepal about 1000 micro-hydro plants withoutput capacity of about 9 MW are alreadyinstalled for electrification and milling pur-pose. But 70% of them are not in work-ing conditions due to the improper operationand management of these plants. Electricitythus generated is only used for lighting pur-poses without any other end-uses.

Hence considering all these facts, the con-struction of micro-hydro plants could be amilestone for the development in a moun-tainous country like Nepal. There are manyperennial water sources, which are unusedand have the potential for micro-hydro. Ifthis potential would be tapped, then it couldbe used for the benefit of the rural people tobe a tool for the balanced development.

Small Wind Being Ignored InEastern Africa?

by Bernard Osawa, Kenya(PPRE1996/97)3

Experience with wind systems in many re-gions of Africa has largely been in thewater-pumping sector. Whereas waterpumps can be found in the remotest parts ofAfrica, very few wind electric systems ex-ists. Bernard Osawa, Energy for Sustain-

3About the Author: Bernard Osawa(PPRE1996/97) is a renewable energy engineer andconsultant with Energy for Sustainable de-velopment Africa (ESDA), a consulting firmbased in Kenya with partners in the UK.Email: <[email protected]>.

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Santiago Sanchez, Ecuador(PPRE 2001/02) informed us at theend of last year, that after a year of waitinghe finally got involved as General Manageron the Renewable Energies Project forthe Galapagos Islands sponsored by KfW,E7 and UNDP, as a consultant for UNDP.Besides he also prepared a sustainabilitymodel for the introduction of PV SolarHome Systems for the Amazon region,where he achieved to have the compromiseof the users to pay for a sustainable tarifffor the service involving the community.During the last year Santiago was alsobusy finishing the book about Renewables‘Energías Renovables - Conceptos yAplicationes’, which is available inSpanishlanguage (pdf-format).

You may contact Santiago directly:<[email protected]>

Dr. As’ad Tubail, Palestine (PPRE1993/94) has finished his PhD disser-tation and discussed it last year July in theIslamic University. The PhD-Title was en-titled "Computer simulation and modellingof Hybrid Systems to meet the Energy De-mand for remote and rural areas in middleeast countries". Thereafter As’ad startedworking in the Islamic University in Gazaas a lecturer for 6 hours per week besidehis work in UnRWA and he even managedto visit Germany and Oldenburg universitybriefly during Christmas period last year.During his Germany trip As’ad was try-ing to gather some information on the lat-est version of PV panels, new characteris-tics, parameters, size of output and prices.He needs these data to prepare an economi-cal feasibility study for installations of standalone systems in Gaza and West Bank. Healso showed us plans of interesting projects,which he has supervised in the last years.

Noel Ally, Guyana (PPRE 1991/92)sent us a brief note after a long time of si-

lence last year informing us that that he ispresently working at a Shipbuilding / Ship-repair Facility in GUYANA . Although notinvolved in RE these days, he really fan-cies to read the PPRE newsletter to see whatPPRE alumni and specially his former fel-lows are up to at the moment.

Augustus Leon, India (PPRE1993/94) who is working as Senior Re-search Associate at Asian Institute of Tech-nology in Bangkok, Thailand informed usabout his present activities as follows: Iam working as a Consultant, and simultane-ously doing my PhD. My Consultant workis mainly on research related to solar dryingand biomass briquetting/improved stoves.Proposal writing, report writing, preparingresearch papers/ PowerPoint Presentations/training materials/documents etc. are in-herent to this kind of job. I am also do-ing project management, running the day-to-day handling of project activities. Sometravelling is also involved, to the countriesparticipating in the project. My doctoral re-search is on a ’Renewable Energy-based AirHeating System for Drying Applications’.The proposal is to design and develop anair heating system integrating an UnglazedTranspired Solar Collector (UTC), a pebble-bed thermal storage and a biomass gasi-fier stove to deliver a steady stream of hotair at a required temperature and flow rate,irrespective of weather fluctuations. Mymain research in this whole set-up is onthe UTC. I am currently experimenting witha UTC and trying to characterise its per-formance. Agustus also participated in theAlumni Summerschool 2004.

Mazharul Islam, Bangladesh(PPRE 2000/01) moved to Canadato start his PhD studies there. Last yearMazhar was working on ‘Vertical AxisWind Turbines’. Of course it would be nicete get more info about his PhD project...

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

THE COWBOY AND THE LESBIANAn old cowboy went to a bar & ordered a drink.As he sat sipping his whiskey, a young lady satdown next to him. She turned to the cowboy &asked "Are you a real cowboy?" He replied "Well,I’ve spent my whole life on the ranch, herdinghorses, mending fences & branding cattle, so Iguess I am." She said "I’m a lesbian. I spendmy whole day thinking about women. As soonas I get up in the morning, I think about women.When I shower, I think about women. As I watchTV, or even eat, I think about women. Everythingseems to make me think about women." The twosat sipping in silence. A short time later, a youngman sat down on the other side of the old cowboyand asked "Are you a real cowboy?" The old cow-boy tipped back his hat & said "I always thoughtI was, but I just found out I’m a Lesbian."

Alejandro Umana, Columbia(PPRE 2001/02) started workingwith one of the biggest independent Windenergy consultancy in the world, namelyGarrad Hassan & Partners Limited, Bris-tol, UK right after his PPRE studies inOldenburg.

Ibrahim Odeh, Jordan (PPRE1997/98) started in 2002 his PhD stud-ies at Ulster University, UK. Ibrahim has gota full scholarship for his PhD project on ‘In-tegrated photovoltaic water pumping and re-verse osmosis water desalination system forremote applications’.

Ram Prasad Dhital, Nepal (PPRE2001/02) has joined Alternative EnergyPromotion Center (AEPC) under ministry ofscience and technology in Nepal as an en-ergy officer in Mid 2003. AEPC is the apexgovernment body responsible for planningand implementing alternative energy tech-nologies in Nepal. He is given the responsi-bility of micro-hydro section for which hehas to coordinate the donors and appraisethe individual projects. See also his articleat page 42.

He wrote us: ‘Yes, everything is going welland weather is really good in Kathmandu

these days. Not like yours in Oldenburg!

By the way, I had an opportunity to par-ticipate the Asia-Africa Regional workshopon Small Hydro. The seminar was heldat Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala,India, from 11 – 15, November 2003. Themain objectives of the seminar were to

(i) to exchange views on small hydro powerdevelopment in Asia and Africa and its po-tential for the meeting the current and futurerural electrification needs,

(ii) to study, through case histories, the var-ious models of small hydro power develop-ment in the region,

(iii) to examine the potential for develop-ment of Pico, Micro, Mini and Small hy-dropower development in the countries ofthe region,

(iv) to take note of the financing options andpolicies for small hydro power developmentin the region, and

(v) to explore the opportunities for localuser participation from concept to comple-tion of small hydro projects.

I presented a paper on Microhydro Powerdevelopment, an experience of AlternativeEnergy Promotion Centre Nepal (my orga-nization). I met many people from Asia andAfrica including Mr. Binu Parthan and wehad a very good time there.’

Samudragupta Patil, India (PPRE1998/99) gave us a small note thathe is still working at Maharashtra EnergyDevelopment Agency (MEDA), but wastransferred to Pune on promotion end of2002. He was working as a Project Man-ager for ’Biomass based Power GenerationProjects’. MEDA wanted to gear-up the im-plementation of this project and they orga-nized a business meeting in Pune on 27thJanuary 2003. Info about MEDA availableat<www.mahaurja.com>.

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PROJECTS

MHP in Nepal — An effectiveTool for Development

by Manoj Kumar Khadka2

Development of a country or a region meansto facilitate all the people with adequate fa-cility for the comfortable life and availabil-ity of physical infrastructure within all re-gions of the country. Balanced developmentis the ultimate goal of any country and thefruits of development should be distributedequally to all parts of the country. Electric-ity is also an essential thing for human kindin the modern world. It is almost impossibleto imagine modern world without electric-ity. But the context of Nepal is very differ-ent.

The stage of development of any countrycan be characterized by per capita energyconsumption. Nepal’s per capita energyconsumption is only 12.7 GJ that is one ofthe lowest in the world. This is due to factof low economic growth and dependence ofpeople upon the traditional forms of energysources and also unavailability of energy inthe rural mountainous areas. The main fea-ture of energy sector in Nepal is the growingimbalance between energy resource endow-ment and its current use. Dependency upontraditional forms of energy fuelwood is ex-cessive which is also causing great threat tothe environment where as in other side thelarge hydropower potential is virtually un-used.

Despite the importance and necessity ofelectricity, only 15% of the total populationhas access to the electricity. Nepal’s en-ergy use pattern is dominant with the tradi-tional forms of energy like fuel wood, agri-residues, animal wastes etc and it consti-tutes about 90% of the total energy con-sumption. Only 10% energy is available

2Mr. Khadka is an Engineer in Micro-HydroArea Center, NCDC and is PPRE alumni of2002/03.

from the commercial sources of energy likecoal, petroleum products, electricity etc. Inthis figure the contribution of the electric-ity is only 1%. The major source of elec-tricity in Nepal is hydropower. The es-timated hydropower potential in Nepal is83000 MW out of which 25000 MW is tech-nically and financially viable. Till now only350 MW has been generated; so there is alot of scope for hydropower development inNepal. The major constrains for the devel-opment of this hydro electricity is the hugeinitial invest for the construction of theseplants and environmental problems associ-ated with it. The electricity from these largehydropower plants is connected to the na-tional grid and distributed to the urban cen-ters and largely populated areas where theenergy demand is more and consumption ismore. Due to the high transmission cost andlower energy consumption in the rural ar-eas, this electricity could not be distributedto these areas especially in mountain parts.

In this context to electrify these rural settle-ments is the construction of isolated gridsthrough the construction of micro-hydroplants. The major demand of electricityfor these areas is for domestic lighting pur-pose and to run small-scale industries in thevillage. There are many perennial watersources in mountainous region from whichelectricity could be developed in efficientand economic way. This technology is very

29

PROJECTS

Figure 3.2: James Wafula filling inspection-sheet

use an Inverter and retain the originalwiring.

• In either case, i.e. 12 V dc or 240 Vac use energy saving lightsthroughout the house.

• Consider replacing the 75 W colorTV with 15 W B/W TV.

Actually James gave this example already inSeptember last year, but since its a good ex-ample of real pratice, its published here!

James also expects some more contracts andbusiness coming from this consultancy hedid, since the SHS-owner has many friendswho are also interested in a SHS, but are abit hesitant because of her experiences.

Solar Ironing

by Mohammed Mozammel Hoque1

To iron cloth and dress utilizing the solar en-ergy is a good alternative for remote areasor those communities whose electrificationis not possible by the grid connection. Tokeep hygienic, germfree and to make com-fortable, beautiful and longevity, after wash-ing, cloth or dress must be ironed. But inthe remote and those areas where electric-ity is not available, to iron the cloth anddress is a great problem. In ancient days inBangladesh, charcoal was used for ironingand nowadays, kerosene stoves are used inremote areas. These methods are expensiveand sometimes, during the ironing period,ash or soot thicks and causes black spots onthe cloth or dress.

On the other hand, to iron the cloth anddress utilizing solar energy is completelyash- and dust-free and reduces ironing cost.By a study it is found that solar ironing is thecheapest compared to electric and kerosenestove ironing systems.

For marketing, the products of the rural cot-tage textile industries in the remote areas,can be ironed using the solar energy. So-lar ironing requires a very simple designand construction and it comprises only aparabolic dish concentrator and two irons,made of white cast iron.

(A detailed article was submitted by the au-thor for forthcoming second PPRE publica-tion.)

1Jr. Instructor (Mechanical), Kushtia Polytech-nic Institute, Kushtia, Bangladesh – and –Ph.D. Fellow, Department of Electronics andApplied Physics, Islamic University, Kushtia,Bangladesh — also PPRE alumni of 2000/01.

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Butchaiah Gadde, India (PPRE2001/02) mentioned that after his stud-ies in Oldenburg he joined IT Power Indiaas Environmental Engineer early last year.Half of his work is related to renewable en-ergy and half on environment-related thingssuch as Clean Developmental Mechanism(CDM) and phase out of GHG such as CFCsand HFCs in India.

Mesbah Khan, Bangladesh(PPRE 1999/2000) some time agoMesbah wrote: ‘I am in a problem of find-ing the mathmatical/technical derivationor proof of finding difference between1-bladed, 2-bladed and 3-bladed windturbines. 3-bladed turbines are preferredover 2-bladed ones. I remember it isassociated with the stability, solidity effectsand more but forgot how to figure it outin mathmatical form. Can anybody helpme by sending any worksheet, files (PDFor DOC) or any source? It will be a greatassistance to me.’

Oo Abdul Rosyid, Indonesia(PPRE 1995/96) ‘Hallo, I had just re-ceived the Newsletter from you. Even I hadalready read it in the<http://www.ppre.de>,but I ’d love to read it. It looks a nice print-ing, eficient, and complete information. Iknow that it was a hardwork, but it’s verynice job.

Again, thank you! Have a nice time to youall in the spring season with a nice weather.

With my best regards,

Oo AR’

Aravind PV, India (PPRE 2001/02)send us a message: ‘I have received the lastPPRE news letter. It is quite interesting ex-cept for a mistake I found!! I am doing myPhD at University of Delft andnot at IndianInstitute of Science Bangalore (I still havecontacts with them and some students from

Delft go there for thesis work). It will benice if a correction is sent by mail so that no-body in India will try to contact me at Com-bustion Gasification and Propulsion labora-tory at IISc Bangalore!

Here life is interesting as it is always. I amabout to start my experiments at ECN ( Wework in collaboration) from this month.’

Patrick Mugisha, Uganda (PPRE1991/92) ‘Thank you very much for thenewsletter 1/2003. It was nice hearingfrom you and the varied news contained inthe newsletter. This way, things have notchanged much. I am still at Makerere Uni-versity. As you remember, I promised to up-date you on some of the activities about So-lar PV in Uganda. Soon, I will sent you awrite-up about the status of the Solar PV inUganda today with the on-going activities.

Otherwise, not much for now. Greetings toall.

Yours sincerely, Patrick Mugisha.’

Maïga Alhousséini Issa, Mali(PPRE 1988/89) ‘Thank you for theNewsletter N◦ 1/2003 vol. 22. Thank youfor the informations given. I will be inter-ested to have more information about thestatus of the Art in the field of : PV, WindEnergy and bio-energy.

I would like to inform the PPRE Newslet-ter that Mali is going to experiment a verylarge programme of rural electrification. Forconducting this project an Agency named‘Agence Malienne pour le Développementde l’Energie Rurale (AMADER)’ is goingto be created. This AMADER is going towork mainly in tow sectors:

1) Rural Electrification with the appropriatetechnologies

2) Domestic energy based mainly on woodand associates.

For the rural electrification, the system as

21

NEWS FROM ALUMNI

Figure 2.4: Debessai G. at work in Eritreanstove extension programme (right)

based on the energy production. The ruralpeople are going to pay for energy services(kWh consumed). The private sector is go-ing to be involved to conduct the electrifica-tion to the very remonte areas.

As you can see, there will be a productionof electricity from various sources like hy-dropower, diesel engine, PV, Wind, biomassetc...

As we are just starting the Malian program,it will be interesting to have experiences andexchange from other countries and institute.Please kindly give us your own experiencefor conducting a very good rural electrifica-tion project for a country of 1,240,000 km2

with a population of 12,000,000 with 90%of the population considered as rural.

Alhousséini Issa Maïga, CNESOLER, B.P134, Bamako, MALI’

Debessai Ghebrehiwot, Eritrea(PPRE 1994/95) ‘The Energy Re-search and Training Center, Asmara, wantto renew the relationhsip between ERTCand The University of Oldenburg. Pleasealso forward me the e-mail of Kenyatta Uni-versity who participated in the meeting heldin Kenya organized by Oldenburg Univer-sity for PPRE alumni.’

Bidzina Kekelia, Georgia (PPRE1998/99) Bidzina stays in Freiburg forcouple months already, accompanying hiswife (she received one-year DAAD post-graduate scholarship) and thinking to ap-ply for Integration Consulting job opening.He also joined the DAAD sponsored PPREAlumni Summerschool in May 2004 in Old-enburg.

Jan Lam, Netherlands (PPRE1998/99) Sent us ‘questions from thebush” and wrote: “We are a company en-gaged in rural electrification in Mali bymeans of SHS on a fee for service basis. Atthe moment we are preparing tender doc-uments for the procurement of solar kits(SHS) with a capacity between 40 and 120Wp for a daily energy consumption between100 and 400 Wh. We have to decide nowon the type of battery we want to use. Thenormal ‘open’ lead-acid batteries we havein use so far are asking a lot of maintenancebecause of the high ambient temperature for10 months a year (between 36 and 44◦C).This causes a level of water consumptionwhich makes monthly service intervals nec-essary. This is very costly and therefore weare looking for alternatives.

Questions:

Can sealed ‘maintenance free’ batterieswithstand these temperatures? Is a boostfunction on the charge regulator required?

We are of the impression that when the bat-teries come to the upper cut-out level thereis enough movement (boiling) in the cells toprevent stratification.

With an average expected battery lifetimeof 3 years we will have the coming yearsa large number of old batteries on our hand.We expect this figure to be at 2500 batter-ies/year in 4 years time.

Where can we find information on environ-

22

PROJECTS

THE COWBOY AND THE MINISTERA pompous minister was seated next to a cow-boy on a flight to Oklahoma. After the planewas airborne, drink orders were taken. The cow-boy asked for a whiskey and soda, which wasbrought and placed before him. The flight atten-dant then asked the minister if he would like adrink. He replied in disgust, I’d rather be sav-agely raped by a brazen whore than let liquortouch my lips." The cowboy then handed his drinkback to the attendant and said, "I didn’t know wehad a choice."

PROJECTS OF PPREALUMNI

Solar Home System Inspection

by James Wafula, Kenya(PPRE 1992/93)

James, whom staff of Oldenburg visitedat his Solar Home Company in Kitale,Kenya after the Nairobi-Seminar last yearwrote us the following about a typical SHS-Inspection we did togther:

I have just come from the home we went tothe other day. The homeowner is Mr. Ny-ongesa Wafula (no relation) who works inNairobi. His wife is Mary Wafula (a lo-cal Agricultural Officer). They purchasedthe PV-system from Kenya Credit Traders(KCT) about a year ago. It comprises of a60 W panel, 100 Ah battery, 2*18W fluo-rescent lights, 8*15W incandescent lights,a 75 W Sanyo color TV, and the normal acwiring. The system was installed by a localelectrician recommended by KCT.

My inspection revealed the following:

• The house had been wired for ac inanticipation for grid electricity (gridis nearby ’»400 m)

• Because of heavy use of dcincandescent lights and color ac/dcTV, charge controller wasdisconnecting loads early.

Actions taken before by other company:

Figure 3.1: James Wafula (left) with his em-ployees in front of his Solar HomepowerCompany

• Charge controller was thought to befaulty. Therefore electrician wascalled to rectify it. Charge controllerdeveloped more problems.

• Electrician recommended removingthe controller and inserting a diode inthe PV-Battery +ve line.

• Battery continued to be deepdischarged thereby leading tounder-performance of the entiresystem and gradually shortening thebattery’s life.

Other problems indicated during myinspection:

• All dc loads using the original 1.5mm2 wire from the main switch.

• Battery clips used instead of batteryclamps.

• Shading on panel caused by thedesign of the panel frame.

My major recommendations to theSHS-owner included:

• Either replace load wires with 2.5mm2 wire for 12 V nominal system or

27

PROJECTS

Saiful Islam, Bangladesh (PPRE2000/01) Saiful answered an info re-quest (on PPRE-L) by Johnny Nahui Ortiz,Peru:

‘Re: PV Systems / Wind Power Grid Con-nection

Hello,

You can look into the following standardsfor PV systems:

[1] ‘Recommended Practice for Utility In-terface of Photovoltaic (PV)Systems,’ IEEEStd. 929, 2000.

[2] ‘Photovoltaic system performance mon-itoring — Guidelines for measurement,data exchange and analysis,’ IEC 61724,November 1998.

[3] ‘Characteristics of the utility interfacefor photovoltaic (PV) systems,’ IEC 61727CDV.

The second standard is for field testing.’

Johnny had written:

‘I am presently looking for information as-sociated with:

1. Technical Standards for PV Systems2. Regulatory frameworks for Wind PowerGrid Connection

I would greatly appreciate if someone couldsuggest any reference’

Edu Knagge, Germany (PPRE1990/91) this is to announce that ourcolleague and friend Edu Knagge became afather in March 2003 – see fig. 2.5. NowEdu’s family are preparing for a new child –expected for the coming fall.

Binu Parthan, India (PPRE97/98)as a member of the Small Scale CDM ac-tivities panel for the Climate Change Secre-tariat Binu travelled to Germany in June andJuly last year to attend two meetings of thepanel in Bonn. Due to a very tied schedule

Figure 2.5: Father and son

he missed to visit Oldenburg University thistime. This sumkmer Binu managed to cometo Germany, to attend the Summerscholl inOldenburg anRenewables2004conferencein Bonn.

<[email protected]>

Asliddin Komilov, Usbekistan(PPRE01/02) writes in May: ‘Thereis a new country open for developmentactivities, Afghanistan. But I am sure thatmost of the people would like to learnthe situation there from distance. This isthe last news: ‘The office of ECOSAN,the Uzbek organization for protecting theenvironment, was opened at a ceremonyin Mazar-e Sharif, capital of the northernAfghan Balkh Province, on April 28.’ Youknow I have a contact with ECOSAN, soI could help interested parties to establishcontact and get some information or dosomething together.’

<[email protected]>

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NEWS FROM ALUMNI

mentally sound, low-tech battery recyclingtechniques?’

So, that was some months ago. Jan par-ticpated in the Alumni Summerschool 2004and told us that he changed his job and nowworks for a consultancy in the Netherlands– again with rural electrification.

Juan Roberto Paredes, Colom-bia (PPRE 1999/2000) who is em-ployed at the German windenergy consul-tancy, called Deutsche Windguard GmbH,wrote Mid of last year the following:

Wind energy can be successful! The firstwind park in Colombia (19,5 MW) is goingto be constructed this year, in part due to thehelp of the German Government (via GTZ)and its program TERNA for developingcountries. The full report can be found at:<http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story?-storyid=4194>or <http://www.nordex.de>.The project was also sold as a CDM projectto the Prototype Carbon Fund of the WorldBank. My company was involved in thewind measurement and the feasibility study.For more information you can contact me.

Awa Celestine Anyam, Cameroon(PPRE 1996/97) informed us that hebecame head of the Petroleum sector in theMinistry of Mines and Energy in Cameroon.He is regularly sending us a copy of the de-partments newsletter about energy mattersin Cameroon.

Konrad Lustig, Germany (PPRE1997/1998) after finishing his PhD atFrauenhofer Institut in Freiburg (Instituteof Solar Energy) Konrad joined the PREGroup (Produktgruppe Regenerative En-ergien) in a big German company, calledBOSCH, in Esslingen. His main duty isresearch in the field of integration of solarcomponents into common heating systems.Also he is involved in the development of

solar systems for foreign markets, speciallySpain, Portugal and England. At the mo-ment he is running simulations for optimi-sation of these systems.

Gianpiero Nacci, Italy (PPRE2002/03) who joined the EuropeanBank for Construction Development(EBRD) in London, UK, right after hisstudies with us recently told us that heis working mostly on energy efficiencyprojects but is also partially involvedwith renewables (a couple of renewableenergy credit lines for small/mediumprojects; EBRD carbon fund projects;etc.). Sometimes he would like to bemore involved in the project develop-ment side rather than project evaluation.However, it is fine for the time being; Heis learning many things and working ina stimulating environment (even if notalways as “sustainable”....). Plus, he istravelling sometimes (mainly Russia) whichadd an interesting upside to his activity.<www.ebrd.com/country/sector/energyef/>

He wrote in detail: ‘By the way, now thingsseem starting to settle in. Living in Londonis more stressful that we thought and I amstarting only now to get used to the impec-cable performances of the London transportsystem. Job is fine even if I am not involvedin RET as much as I would like. However,at the moment, I am involved in the tech-

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nical due diligence of a biomass boiler andassisting other people working in structur-ing funds for RE deployment. My main fo-cus now is on energy efficiency in the indus-trial sector and, as you can imagine, there isa lot of scope in the EBRD’s countries ofoperation. For instance, I am working at thebiggest car factory in Russia which I believeis the biggest in the world. It is located inTogliatti and it is simply amazing. It pro-duces 700000 cars/year and employs some80000 people in a single factory (!!). Any-way, trying to identify possible projects insuch kind of facilities is somehow difficult:you do not know where to start. The firstfeeling is that the best thing to do is simplydismantling everything and building a newfacility. But this can be even more difficultdue to the environmental and social issuesassociated. I am still missing Oldenburg andall of you very much (like all the last yearalumni by the way). Hope everything is go-ing all right for you. I have got quite a num-ber of useful documents and sources of inforelated to RE in East Europe and CentralAsia, Cogeneration, District Heating, Car-bon Financing, and RE/ Energy Efficiencyfinancing. Please, let me know if you re-quire any kind of support related to thesetopics.

I hope to be able to pop in briefly in Old-enburg sometimes next year. I am lookingforward to see all of you.’

Reynaldo Reynaldo, Philippines(PPRE 1989/90) resigned from ShellRenewables in Mid 2002 already and startedhis job at Winrock International, which isalso located in the Philippines, as he wroteus last year. Winrock has a project on ruralelectrification with livelihood projects us-ing renewable energy systems in MuslimMindanao. The Program aims to energise160 barangays and Reynaldo acted as Areamanager for Tawi-Tawi Province. They hadto energise 106 villages by December 2003and have to generate livelihood projects bySeptember 2004.

Musa Mzumbe, Tanzania (PPRE1999/2000) together with Eliz-abeth Kingu, Tanzania (PPRE1995/96) formed a renewable energycompany called RESCO(T) LTD and thecompany started operation in February2003. They are dealing with design, sup-ply and installation of PV systems and thereoffice is based in Dar Es Salaam. Last yearthey supplied some solar modules to ruralareas and did an installation for a dispensaryin Dar Es Salaam. Further info is availableat: <www.resco-tz.com>

Anand Shukla, India (PPRE 2001/02) returned right home to India afterhis studies with us to re-join his former em-ployer TERI, Delhi. As one of his dutiesin TERI Anand was heading a project forJharkhand state where the team has to de-velop a model and strategies for electrifi-cation of rural villages. Jharkhand is thepoorest state of the country, bad infrastruc-ture and it is quite difficult to get any sec-ondary data. But in January 2004 he re-turned to Germany again to start his PhDat the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, En-vironment and Energy. Right now Anandis involved in a project calledWISIONS,which is related to energy and sustainabledeveloment in developing countries (see ar-

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ticle on page 34).

Francis Sichali, Malawi (PPRE1997/98) went abroad in 2002 andjoined the Department of Elect. Mech. Ser-vices at the Government of Botswana. He isstationed in Gaborone, Botswana.

Mhlanga, Alois P., Zimbabwe(alumni of RE MSc Programme inZimbabwe) informed us that he movedto Tunisia earlier this year where he joinedAfDB. Alois is working on the Finesseproject where they are financing RE in smallscale enterprises around Africa. ActuallyAlois is looking for contacts in most Africancountries, since the project will be imple-mented throughout the continent. In nearfuture they will need inputs from people likethe PPRE-Alumni on the continent whenit comes to country consultations, policyand institutional reviews, capacity building,etc. As Alois took part in the Nairobi-Alumni-Seminar (please see article) he wasimpressed by some of the presentation madethere and he is quite positive that some ofthe alumni can really contribute meaning-fully to RE dissemination. They have thetechnical knowledge as well as the field ex-perience and they are better positioned tocontribute towards the above mentioned ac-tivities than some consultants who are hiredyet they know almost nothing about howthings work on the ground. His contact is:<[email protected]>

Henry J.M. Tommy, Sierra Leone(PPRE 1993/94) Henry wrote: ‘It hasbeen the longest while. How are things withyou?

With me, a lot has been going on here inHalifax. I have changed my program a cou-ple of times and worked here and there andhave finally settled on trying to complete myPhD program by summer 2004. It is not di-

rectly related to energy. I’m now into fluidmechanics, research turbulent jets.’

And just we learned that he recently becameAssistant Professor at St. Francis XavierUniversity in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada– Congrats!

Satish Gautam, Nepal (PPRE1994/95) joined the Georgia Institute ofTechnology, Atlanta, US as a Ph.D. studentin the School of Public Policy. His area ofspecialisation is Environmental Policy.

Julius Ntoga, Tanzania (PPRE1994/95) informed us that he startedsomething completely different in 2001.Actually Julius started doing a course onbusiness administration ‘Master of BusinessAdministration degree’ specialising in mar-keting! The course was held at the univer-sity of Dar Es Salaam from 2001 to 2003.

Francis Xavier Ochieng, Kenya(2001/02) FXO sent e-mail about his ac-tivities and wrote: ‘What am I doing? Wella lot of research and presentation. Essen-tially I have become more or less a con-sultant in sustainable development, environ-ment and energy. For instance I leave forthe lakeside town of kisumu next week towrap up a month long research on land usein the Lake Victoria basin. Next month Iam meant to present a paper in a workshopon research ethic at Maseno University forscholars in Subsaharan Africa. My topic isE-ethics — i.e emerging issues of ethics ininternet based research in Kenya.

In December I did another research on howcivil society organisations are influencingpolicy in the environmental and natural re-sources sector. I present the results on mon-day next week and then leave for Kisumuthe next day.’ — See also the article aboutthe Nairobi Alumni event on page 38.

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