Things got a bit hectic during the last few weeks in Honduras and it has taken me a while to get situated at home again. I do want to take the time to finish up on our activities, so this is the third of at least three that will summarize what we did in September and what we are planning to do in the future.
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We turned off the desalination system on 8 September and kept the evaporation system running until 9 September. Then we started packing. To be honest, it was kind of sad. We have worked with a great bunch of people and got to work in a wonderful country. This post will show the packing process, how the site has changed over the last few months, and will include my attempt at showing the joy that a fun team can bring to life.
The field where we put the PV panels was originally covered with trash and many plants had been there, but the UPi crew did a lot of work to make the site usable for a pilot. During the last few weeks of operation, we noticed that a lot of plants had been growing between the PV panels and along the walls. As we started removing panels, the degree of growth became much more apparent. Plants had intertwined themselves around our wiring, making removal an interesting task. I thought it would be fun to show how things looked during the course of the last few months. Disclaimer: I live (and am from) the desert. Green things are somewhat abnormal - even after two months in a very green place.
[Pictures came from multiple sources including Clara Borrego, Victoria Amador, and Victor Zepeda]
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View from the front of the field.
The first picture shows how barren the land was (after the UPi crew had cleaned it)
The middle picture shows how the field looked with the panels installed towards the beginning of the pilot
The final picture shows the field after we removed the panels |
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View from the back of the field.
(LOOK AT ALL THE PLANTS!) |
So, back to the packing process. One lesson learned from shipping the system to Honduras was that we wanted to protect the PV panels better. We thought that we had secured the panels very well for shipment, but we hadn't built any structure to hold them in place (other than ratchet straps and pallets). So, we decided to build boxes to provide more structural support (we hope!). The next parts involved packing from the back of the container to the front. It got a little tight towards the end.
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Clara and Mr. Rusbel devised a plan for the boxes using the pallets we used to ship from El Paso.
We had to build the bases first, then load them into the container. |
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For some reason, using power tools using solar power always made me smile.
(I'm not good with saws, thankfully Clara and Rusbel are) |
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The completed boxes & the straps
Each box had L-brackets to secure the sides to each other, the base, and the the top. We used ratchet straps to secure everything to the floor of the container. |
The next step involved taking the array apart and dismantling the desalination system. Similar to when we packed the system in El Paso, we had as many people as possible to save our backs and make the work go faster. But, in Tegucigalpa, UPi brought a grill and made delicious tacos for all!
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| Each of the blocks weighs about 25 pounds. We had over a hundred of these to remove, stack, then load into the container. |
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| Clara is always smiling. |
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| I didn't realize we'd have such a perfect stack of blocks! |
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| Jonathan Eveline helped get some of the L-braces onto the PV panel boxes. |
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| It takes a group of us to get everything loaded. (Sorry for my bad picture skills, Victoria!) |
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| The final pieces. By this time, we were having to crawl over things and squeeze through small spaces. |
The container was shipped to UPi for storage until we can find funding for the next adventure. Let me know if you'd like to be part of it. We will need partners, funding, and possibly volunteers.
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The desalination container gets some rest at UPi. (what a view!)
[Photo credit: Victoria Amador; great shot, thank you!] |
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| What a fun team. The UPi-UTEP crew will work together and have fun again. Thank you to all that made this possible. |
...Stay Tuned
ReplyDeleteIt is a pleasure to know your blog, my name is Roberto Zepeda and I am the older brother of Victor Zepeda. It was thanks to him I got to know your work doing this interesting pilot project in my country. In fact, that caught my attention and I would like to know more about what were your conclusions about the quality of water or if is it feasible to perform this kind of projects here in Honduras.
Thank you very much for this innovative research. I hope that can be helpful to alleviate water shortages in several communities across the country.