Global Energy Engagement Program

After the September 2017 landfall of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, UW chemical engineering professor Lilo Pozzo initiated an effort to help the island’s most vulnerable citizens recover. From fall 2017 to summer 2018, Pozzo led three trips to the rural mountain municipality of Jayuya — the hometown of her wife, Marvi Matos — to provide aid to the residents and study community energy needs after natural disasters. Teams largely made up of CEI students installed 21 solar PV-battery “nanogrids” to power medical devices, conducted qualitative interviews of the residents, and collected data from the nanogrids’ integrated loggers. The initiative gained national recognition, including in a New York Times article on the aftermath of the hurricane, and the team published their research in IEEE Power & Energy magazine. The project was also featured on UW’s homepage and in various UW print publications.

In December 2017, former CEI postdoc Sarah Holliday (materials science & engineering) and CEI Graduate Fellow Griffin Ruehl (chemical engineering) traveled to Gaborone, Botswana for the 9th International Conference of the African Materials Research Society (AMRS). The conference, “Addressing Africa’s Challenges Through Materials Development,” was focused on science that will enable local industries to meet the continent’s existing and future needs by using readily-available materials and natural resources, including solar energy. In 2018, CEI Graduate Fellow Breena Sperry joined the team, and she and Ruehl co-organized a 5-day conference with the African Network for Solar Energy (ANSOLE) in September 2018 in Mbouo-Bandjoun, Cameroon. The conference, held at the Centre Polyvalent de Formation vocational school that has the country’s only solar certification program, included hands-on training and research presentations on photovoltaics and energy storage, as well as what they believe to be the first women’s panel at an ANSOLE conference. Ruehl and Sperry hope to establish a video lecture partnership with ANSOLE.

Over spring break 2019, a group of seven CEI students traveled to Cobán, Guatemala in collaboration with Seattle-area entrepreneur-philanthropists to install seven solar-battery nanogrids and provide training for local community members. Equipment and local organization were provided by Guatemala Solar LLC and the local non-profit Vivan Los Jóvenes. The team has since established itself as a UW registered student organization (RSO), now known as Global Renewables Infrastructure Development (GRID). GRID signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Guatemala’s Galileo University for future collaborations, and aims to expand their outreach efforts to other regions in the future.

• Use instincts and empathy to remain respectful of people and spaces.
• Introduce yourself first and ask if you can take pictures before lifting the camera.
• We are likely to feature these photos in a UW news story — explain this, and make sure subjects sign a UW photo release.
• Try to assign someone to focus on photography for a sustained period.
• Capture each other, your work/conversations/interactions with locals, products like solar panels in environmental context, and landscapes, textures, colors, flags, art on the walls, etc.
• Try to wear purple, or a UW or CEI logo. Other small logos can be photoshopped.
• Don’t be afraid to ask to move someone or something, or repeat an action.
• Shooting too many photos is better than too few.
• Explore different angles, shoot through windows or gaps in trees, put stuff in the foreground.
• If you feel adventurous and have any manual controls:
  • A bigger aperture (lower f.number) gives soft background with sharp subject, small aperture (bigger f.number) useful for landscape shots with a lot of light. Recommend shooting on setting where you can pick the aperture and the software picks the shutter speed.
  • If shooting inside/in lower light, don’t be afraid to push ISO higher.