An engineering-student design team at Virginia Tech is
creating a photovoltaic system to provide a medical clinic in Kenya with a
desperately needed source of power. Generous donations from three companies – IBM,
Renesola and Grundfos Pumps – working together with the Virginia Tech
Foundation, have provided the students on the Renewable Energy Senior Design
Team with about 50 percent of the materials necessary to create the system.
The Getongoroma Medical Clinic, built and operated by
Foundation Ministries of Kenya, currently provides much needed medical
treatment and education for thousands in the surrounding area.
The addition of electric power will significantly expand the
capability of the clinic to serve the local residents. Electric power will
provide clean well water, refrigerated vaccines, testing mechanisms for HIV and
other diseases, and other related needs for medical purposes.
“Currently, the clinic cannot offer emergency treatment at
night or keep vaccines for more than a few hours. Additionally, the clinic
cannot provide any major medical services, such as testing or treatment for
AIDS, malaria and dengue fever, three very large problems in this area,”
explains Mark Showalter, a Virginia Tech graduate of mechanical engineering. As
the assistant adviser to the team project, he adds, “The nearest electrical
grid is a 45-minute drive from the clinic.”
The design team selected solar power because the remote
location does have an abundance of sunlight. “This renewable energy was deemed
necessary, as imported fuels would have to be carried over 50 kilometers of
rough terrain,” Showalter says.
Showalter credited IBM with donating silicon wafers, the
material used in making solar panels.
Renesola, a Chinese company, then refined the silicone and paid another
company to make the panels. Grundfos Pumps, a Danish manufacturer of pumps,
donated the ground water pump to work in conjunction with the solar panels.
The student team now will finish the assembly of the
photovoltaic system and ship the entire installation to the medical clinic in
Kenya. Their system should provide about 24 kilowatt hours of solar energy to
the clinic daily, exceeding the 18 kilowatt hours it needs each day to
function.
Showalter
plans to travel to Kenya in August to install the system. He visited the site
two years ago in preparation for this effort, but he does add one caveat. The
team still is looking for a means to obtain batteries, electronics and a
shipping container.
