Some years back, I became interested in some of Prof Modi’s projects and through that interest I met Matt Basinger and later Francisco Sebastion Rodriguez-Sanchez. These two get the respect and support of our hands on community, they have many hours in the field with their hands all over the equipment. Whether it be greasy gears or mosfets, these two have studied them with intensity.
But why is this project more worthy of our attention?
It may have been part of a mission statement that Seb had shared about a Mali Project He and Matt were working on at the time that left a mark on me. To paraphrase best I can… They were measuring the value of the equipment, training, and processes they helped deploy according to the economic benefit it provided the ‘stakeholders’ (villagers).
A current project they are working on is a shared micro power facility, and they are using the cell phone that most customers already own for subscription and billing. Subscribers will be able to cancel their orders for expensive kerosene used for lighting, and they can stop purchasing the short lived automotive type batteries used to charge cell phones and more.
Just yesterday, there was another discussion about who killed the electric car. I look at some of the advertisements, and note that some chargers are designed to operate at 120VAC on a 15 amp circuit. I think of the energy transfer rate, about hot summer days, and cold winter nights too. I think about city traffic, fogged up windshields and more. How much energy do we use just to keep the inside of the vehicle inhabitable and to be able to see out the windows safely? We know we can roll on for what seems forever with tires at near bursting pressures and the table top like road surfaces of San Jose, CA. But as we all know, a lot of people live at the top or the bottom of a hill, and we must be able to stop and navigate a corner with reasonable safety.
My vote is to give Dr. Matt and Dr. Seb a new Electric Vehicle to test.. I trust we’d know what’s underneath the green paint job, and what the value might be for the stakeholder.
Solar Project of Interest
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