The Trip

In six and a half days Fraser and I made our way 4400km to the beautiful, if down with the times, seaside town of Puerto Penasco. We didn`t touch the radio hardly at all and entertained ourselves by playing guessing games and observing the countryside by day and with cribbage by night.

The trip was uneventful and for the most part without adventure, the most exciting deviation being to explore a large wind farm we passed through on the way down.

Near Clinton, Oklahoma at the Blue Canyon Wind Farm, one of the largest wind farms in the US. That wind turbine is 220 feet tall with 115 ft. blades generating 1.65MW!

A refresher on Solar Fire etc.

Visit http://bit.ly/cf1ozx for a quick read about the technologies, the vision and to see some pics of the tech.

Symington Solar

A new chapter in my solar saga is beginning! The originator of the Solar Fire technologies, my grandfather Fraser Symington, has asked that I accompany him to Mexico for the winter so that we might a) escape the Canadian cold (he is 90 years old, after all) and b) establish if/how someone can turn a profit using his Symington Solar Arrays.

The case being thus, my first priority is keeping granddad safe and well and second is to facilitate whatever it is he decides to do. He has been tinkering with and developing the technology for close to 20 years but this is the first time he has been free to really pursue a long term initiative where utilization of the tech would be the central focus.

As evidenced by previous blog posts, essays and websites, I had gone a slightly different direction with the technology than my grandfather advises; he says “Make money with it and the technology will spread automatically.” Fair’s fair and I’m now willing to give his way a shot. Based on our discussions preceding our trip I would most likely do things differently than he plans to, but I really want to see his ideas tested, his theories proved or disproved and I want him to have the satisfaction of seeing his invention fly according to his designs. That being the case I plan to merely act as an extension of his will though I’ll certainly play devil’s advocate when the inclination arises.

Fraser’s plan is to head to Mexico. Reasoning: a) close enough to Canada that should medical problems arise, we’re not pooched, b) we can drive there and so bring down prefab pieces, tools and more gear than we would otherwise be able to c) I speak the language, d) American $. Though we are not married to any idea in particular, we have set our sights on Puerto Peñasco, a town 60 miles from the US Arizona border that is sometimes called “Arizona’s Beach” due to it being the closest seaside to Phoenix and Tuscon.

PP lies near the apex of the Sea of Cortes which is a deep bay formed by the Baja Peninsula. The waters are warm, the tourists and American retirees are numerous and we figure we just might be able to make a buck there.

Off we go in our little Kia Spectra, full to the brim!

Back in the saddle, such as it is.

Well, it has been more than a year since my last post so I might as well let you know that I'm prototyping a new and improved concentrator that has already blown my mind a few times and will hopefully do the same for you once I show it to you.

I'm not going to do that now.

Boo hoo.

Soon, though, as I'm going to be unveiling it with Chocosol at their Solstice Chocolatada on June 21.

Normality? Where?

And by "normality" I clearly meant blogging getting pushed off the agenda by tasks innumerable.

Things are advancing on the MFC contract: we just finished painting the last of the mirrors for the Helios for MFC. Monday we should go out and buy the materials for the dehydrator and the boiler, and hopefully we will finish them within the week. After work we'll be working (heh) at Djadjé's on a new and improved oven.

That should give us about 1 week for tests and modifications, because after that I am going home.

That's right, you heard me, Ottawa, Canada.

MFC has a project at Timbuktu and I'm welcome and encouraged to work on it because there is money, as well as R&D and pilot project possibilities, but it is not the right time for that. I'm in debt to the point where it is unwise to continue abroad. And as such, I think it is prudent to go home, recuperate financially and physically while consolidating and improving the online presence of the project and plan the next move.

For instance, I’ll have to revise this blog, because it’s called ‘The Solar Fire Project Blog’ but it has so far only served as a blog for me and the Mali mission, while I’ve regrettably neglected blogging about what has being going on with Feu Solaire in France. They’ve been doing great things, so check out the website at www.solarfire.org for the latest info.

Leaving Mali will give me a good chance to test the association that we’ve put up here. We’re working on a deal that would see donors in Canada and the United States provide enough funds for the construction and installation of 3 Helios concentrators with ovens, which Tile Tasuma would provide to interested groups under a micro-loan arrangement where the cost of the machines is spread over a period of time where the income generated by using the machine will pay off the loan, and as the money flows back to Tile Tasuma, they will build more concentrators and start the process over again with new partners.

So much to do, so little time, I should be leaving Mali around the 3^rd of June.

To everyone who has supported my throughout this experience: thank you so much. This is by no means the end, merely a pause to regroup and improve.

ANEJ conference and MFC Helios

On the 3^rd of May, the President of Tile Tasuma, Mr. Ibrahim C Tomota, who has been active on the Solar Fire Project since we arrived in Bamako on the 19^th of December, tells me he saw a banner saying that there was a conference of environmental journalists, organized by the Minister of Sanitation and the Environment, Mr. Agatham Ag Alassane, and maybe we should present there. I pointed out that it was Saturday and the conference started on Monday. He said let’s go see the Minister of the Environment and see what can be done. Months before, the Minister said that we were welcome to stop by his home whenever we had news or wanted to discuss. We did so Sunday night. We told him that we had finished the Butterfly, and he said ‘oh great! You’ve got to come to the conference!’ He got on the phone with the organizers and bam, three days of mixing it up with ANEJ (African Network of Environmental Journalists). I have mixed feelings about this conference though, and I might blog them soon. Here is the Minister at the opening ceremony:

And here is the Prime Minister of Mali, clearly pleased with what he hears, he is flanked by the Minister of the Promotion of the Woman, Child and Family and the Minister of Sanitation and the Environment:

The goal of the conference was to raise awareness of the power that journalists have in society to stress the importance of reporting on environmental issues and bring these things to the attention of decision makers and the general public. Did it work? Well the Butterfly was featured as the ‘pic of the week’ in l’Essor the national daily newspaper. You can read the article, hosted here at www.maliweb.net

Soon enough though, it was back to the grind.

Here is Djadjé painting the new Helios:

And us back at Djadjé’s workshop, working to dusk like the good old days.

And me, hating working with sheetmetal:

And Djadjé, stylish as always, welding away:

Excuses, MFC and plans for the summer

A long overdue greetings, everyone!

Things, including me, have been crazy lately. The future is clearer now than it was yesterday, though still not as clear as I would like it to be. Informative, eh?

At least the next month is fairly clear: this morning Tomota and I, as President and Technical Secretary (respectively) of the non-profit association Tile Tasuma (www.tiletasuma.org) signed a contract with the Mali-Folkecenter, an NGO that is very involved in community oriented ecological and renewable energy projects.

Over the next month we will build and test and, if we have time, revise a solar thermal system which will be used to produce Shea butter. The processes we’re interested in are the boiling and the drying of the nuts. I have been provided with very little data about the drying of Shea nuts, as this is the first year MFC is involved in the project, so I have essentially designed a fruit and vegetable dryer, hoping that it won’t be too far off what we need and that we’ll be able to modify it according to what we learn.

We started buying the materials today, will continue tomorrow and then will work like mad to get another Helios concentrator built ASAP which will give us the most time to develop the applications. The idea is to prove the concept of a solar Shea nut process, which would open the door to a longer, more involved project.

I soon have to make the decision if I am staying in Mali for the summer or not. A great number of factors are weighing on the decision but the deciding factor is essentially whether or not I land a paid contract which would span the summer. If I don’t, I’ll set up the association here with funds to continue in my absence, while I go back to Canada to sort myself out financially and personally before returning to Mali sometime in the fall.

Again, sorry for not writing more often sooner, but things have been more trying than I have let on. Normality has been more or less restored, so expect more frequent blogs.

L