Renewable Energy for the Developing World: Hands-On (REDWHO) workshop combines classroom lecture with hands-on labs and renewable energy projects in the community. In the classroom portion, students will gain a basic understanding of many different renewable energy system types, including solar-electricity, micro-hydro electricity, wind-electricity, solar cooking, solar hot water, and methane biogas digesters. Participants will learn the components, applications, and limitations for each system type. Once we have covered the basics, it is time to get our hands dirty!

The majority of this workshop is spent doing hands-on projects in the local community. As a participant in this international workshop, you will have the opportunity to install systems that can dramatically improve the living conditions of the local community. Participants will get to tour existing systems and will work together to install new ones. Participants will join with Sol Verde, a women?s solar cooking cooperative from Guanacaste,Costa Rica, to build (and test) solar cookers. Participants will also help install a small solar-electric system on an unelectrified rural school, and will work together with Sustainable Harvest Honduras to build a methane biogas digester for the Durika community. These hands-on installations give participants the opportunity to interact with local members of the community and gain real-life experience working in the developing world.

John