Eric T. Youngren
A Christian missionary, Martha decided to start an industrial school in Guinea Bissau to teach people business skills that they can use to make a better living for their families. Training courses include auto mechanics, computer skills and repair, and sewing.
At first FLAME ran the school off a noisy, smelly diesel generator that was susceptible to mechanical failures and fuel shortages. Sometimes classes would have to be canceled for a few weeks due to lack of electric power. They needed to upgrade their power system to be able to fulfill their mission to educate the people of Guinea Bissau.Martha and her husband, Herb, already knew the benefits of solar power. At their house in Canchungo, Guinea Bissau they had a 450 Watt off-grid system designed by Eric Youngren in 2003 and pre-assembled in Washington State before shipment to West Africa.
The solar electric system for the school needed to produce enough power to run a room of sewing machines, power tools for woodshop and auto mechanics classes and a room of computers (many of which use old CRT monitors which need a lot more power than contemporary LED monitors), in addition to general lighting.
They commissioned a 14kW off-grid system from Solar Nexus International. The system was put together in Washington State using top quality components from Outback Power Systems, industrial size flooded HUP Solar-One batteries, and 84 Sharp 170 Watt PV modules for installation on a flush mount roof rack. One of the biggest problems in African solar installations is the lack of high quality electrical components to connect the various pieces of the system. Many installations lack circuit breakers, monitoring components, and appropriately sized wiring. This leads to potentially dangerous situations, and lessens the efficiency and reliability of the system.
By sourcing all the parts of the system in the United States and having it pre-assembled, FLAME was able to get a highly-reliable system that is build to meet standard first-world electrical codes. (Guinea Bissau has no electrical codes or electrical inspectors.)
When the system was ready, FLAME volunteers loaded it all in a container for shipment from the Seattle area to West Africa.
Eric Youngren flew to Africa to supervise the installation of the solar electric system by the staff and students of the FLAME Industrial School. Eric led a team of 8-12 young men, training them how to attach the PV modules to the racks and secure them to the roof of the school. Once the array was in place, the crew mounted the pre-assembled Solar Nexus on the wall and hooked up the bank of batteries.
The system has been operational since February of 2009, generating quiet, reliable power for the important educational mission of this school.
