Fund For Global And Civic Engagement Cover Sheet

Project Proposal:Solar Fire for Nepal

Senior Project by Urs Riggenbach

Senior Project Advisor: Molly Anderson

Letter of Recommendation: Molly Anderson

Educational BackgroundMost technologies and goods used today are created using knowledge that is not

accessible to the general public. It therefore provides a barrier for their local production. With non-renewable resources such as oil becoming scarce, local economies seem a vital part of our future, and enabling them to flourish is key to good living standards.

The current economic mindset encourages companies to protect their knowledge by excluding others' access to that resource. This enables them to create a monopoly for a given technology, which ensures profits. During my time at College of the Atlantic (COA), I researched the open-source approach of knowledge creation. By nature, it tackles the above mentioned condition that poses a barrier to local production.

Open-source knowledge is shared along a system of licenses that protects it from being privatized. Open-source content also encourages derivative works that share the same rights, hence inviting for collaboration, modification and redistribution of the content.

The field of open-source started in the nineties with the software engineers' transparent collaboration on software such as Firefox or Linux, but soon extended into multimedia content. Today Wikipedia, the free (and open-source) encyclopedia, features 19.8 million articles in 282 languages1. Freely available over the Internet, anyone is allowed to edit, modify, and distribute Wikipedia articles.

Intrigued by the success of open source software and content, I envisioned open collaboration on the “building plans of life,” meaning the everyday technologies we use such as cars, machines and tools. I developed an economic model that explains the incentives for businesses to collaborate openly. In this post peak-oil model, multiple local economies trade only in raw materials and assemble goods locally. Since there is limited trade between these economies, competition between markets is minimized. Thus it does not hurt a business to share knowledge with businesses in other local economies. If a business chooses to open source a technology, other businesses can choose to adopt it. As they in turn develop and adapt it, they are legally obliged to contribute the changes they made to the plans back to the open-source community. This benefits all, including the business that open-sourced the knowledge in the first place. The open-source approach therefore enables the evolution of knowledge and benefits the whole economy.

In spite of not being a representation of the current world, the incentives outlined by this model have manifested themselves and resulted in niches of open hardware. Technologies that can be easily be copied, manufactured and maintained by local businesses benefit these businesses and challenge corporate efforts to maintain their monopolies. Opportunities for global collaboration thereby open up whenever a business is oriented toward a local market. I followed and contributed to this movement during my time at COA, first through theoretical essays, later trough practical project visits.

Today, many open-source projects pioneer technologies, release them to the public, and attract people to use and contribute to them. I traveled throughout the United States in search of such examples of open-source hardware. I connected with various ”do it yourself” groups and organizations, visiting their project sites at which open-source technologies are developed. Marcin Jakubowski, PhD, of Open Source Ecology (OSE)2, a project based in rural Missouri, is developing the Global Village Construction Set, fifty modular technologies that enable a healthy, comfortable lifestyle. Included in the set are plans for a tractor, earth brick press, electricity generator, steam engine, hydraulic

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia   2 http://www.opensourceecology.org   

systems, wood gasifier, and many others. Their machines are generally eight times cheaper than their corporate alternatives. To attract collaborators and increase usability, these technologies are modular and are built to be maintained locally and to last. During my project visit, I helped develop and build prototypes of hydraulic tractors.

Finally, the open-source approach can be extended to sustainability. Again, corporations do not have an incentive to share technologies for energy production. Furthermore, the current solutions to global energy crises usually have high embodied energy so that a solar panel, for example, can take up to six years to generate as much energy as was needed for its production. Such solutions are generally manufactured in large-scale factories and shipped out, creating a dependency between the consumer and the corporation.

Focusing on local energy production, open-source technology provides an alternative to this. I have seen this firsthand in my communications with the developers of a technology called SolarFire3, in India. Using mirrors, sunlight is centralized to a focal point at which temperatures can reach up to 900° C. With that heat, water in a boiler can be heated. It becomes steam and increases in pressure, off of which a steam engine can be run. The steam engine connects to a generator that produces electricity. The electricity can be charging a battery-array or be supplied to the grid immediately through an alternator. Their solar array plans are open-source and are gaining international attention.

Before I came to COA, I studied at the Mahindra United World College (UWC), in India. I learned English, some Hindi, but also managed to communicate with people through other means when language was not a common denominator, for example when I worked with tribal people in Eastern India or at a Mother Theresa's Home in Maharashtra. I also learned Spanish and conducted fieldwork in Mexico during the Yucatan Program with Todd Little-Siebold. Being a student at the Indian UWC, where people came from 80 different nations, and since coming to COA, I extended my personal network around the world. I have stayed connected with many people, especially interested in their projects.

With your help, I hope to visit the Maya Universe Academy 4, a school in rural Nepal started by the Nepali and UWC graduate Manjil Rana. Their first plan in early 2010 was to start a small community school. When 200 families showed up, their plans changed rapidly. Nepal, with 60% literacy rate, has a high demand for affordable and accessible educational institutions. As of now, it provides free primary school education to 40 students from surrounding villages. The school takes part in the local economy through bartering their material needs with the surrounding community and does community outreach surrounding appropriate technology. It wants to play a vital role in the betterment of the lives of the people of Nepal. Mr. Rana has granted me the chance to implement a power-generating technology at his school, given that I raise the money for material costs and supply the labor for its implementation. It should provide enough electricity to provide light, run 20 laptops and the loads of the student housing.

Since the school and the SolarFire project are located in the neighboring countries India and Nepal, it seems an ideal fit for this research/build project. Currently I am going a Design/Build course at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont. Over the past month we have designed a “tiny house,” and this week we started the build process. I am gathering confidence in woodworking, metalworking and construction. The program will end on the 9th of December giving me time to prepare for my travels ahead.

3 http://www.solarfire.org   4 http://www.mayauniverseacademy.org   

Project Description

It is my contention that the trend in open-source hardware is empowering people around the world to implement sustainable technologies at a local level. During my senior project, I’d like to research an open-source technology from development to implementation. Rather than taking a passive observational role, I want to become my own subject by building such a technology and tracking the challenges and learning experiences that come with implementing a technology at a local level. I intend to contribute my plans to the open-source community, thereby gaining further insights into the collaboration process.

There are two parts to my project. First, I want to visit the SolarFire project in Rajkot, India. The project is carried out at TINYTECH Plants5 a business that provides alternative energy systems in collaboration with SiSustainable, a Finnish NGO. Eerik Wissenz of SiSustainable is the head engineer of the technology, as well as an open source advocate. I plan to interview Mr. Wissenz about the movement and discuss the technology’s adaptation to the Maya Universe Academy. He has already helped me to frame a budget and has provided me with specifications of the technology. I also want to interview the other people behind the technology at TINYTECH Plants. I have been in correspondence with V K Desai, head engineer at TINYTECH Plants, who has agreed to house me. He told me that by the time I will get there, they will have completed their first 32 square meter solar array, an array bigger than what I need to build. In exchange for my stay, I offered to help with writing on-line documentation on the technology, a task that will give me further understanding of the technology. This will also be the time to officially order a 2hp steam engine from TINYTECH and organize shipping to Nepal.

The bulk of the project takes place at the Maya Universe Academy in Nepal. The chance to successfully design and build a technology that increases the self-sustainability of a place is the culmination of my human ecological education at COA. This experience will give me the chance to validate my skills against the real world. Returning back to my home-farm in Switzerland after graduation, I will be able to benefit from this learning-experience while scaling up facilities for the research on agricultural open-source technologies on the farm.

After settling in at Maya Universe Academy, I will revise my plans with the school's organization and network with the local community, gathering contacts useful for the ordering and construction process. I will then travel to nearby Kathmandu, from where I will order materials needed for the construction of the technology, and organize their transportation to the site (see Appendix B: Table 1: Travel and Materials Budget).

The steps of the construction are outlined in Appendix A: Diagram 1: Build-schedule. I will document the process through photography and a field journal.

Coming back to COA, I will write up my senior project and publish the plans created for the construction of the technology in an open-source fashion.

ConclusionI believe that the open-source movement is developing technologies that create

resilience by decentralizing the ownership of knowledge. By developing and spreading technology that can be understood, built and maintained at a local level, I hope to inspire change.

Thank you for considering my proposal for global, civic engagement.

Kind regards,Urs Riggenbach

5 http://www.tinytechindia.com/   

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Appendix B

Table 1: Travel and Materials Budget

I am in the process of putting together a fundraising campaign on kickstarter.com for which I am granted exposure on solarfire.org and mayauniverseacademy.com. I am also working on a fundraiser at COA.

See appendix C for flight details.

Airfare (International)

Returning from Kathmandu, Nepal to NYC $2,036

Ground transportation (International)

$200Bus travels between Maya Universe Academy and Kathmandu $50

Personal contribution -$300

Total financial needs for transportation: $1,986Potential contribution through Kathryn Davis Award (KDA) -$1,000 I have applied for a KDA.Total financial needs for transportation w/ KDA $986

Materials (Budget overview, fund does not apply)

$4,900

Flight from NYC to Rajkot India

Train from Rajkot, India to border, then bus to Kathmandu, Nepal

SolarFire project materials Covered through fundraising.

Appendix CFlight offer from Kayak.com, October 6, 2011