New Members

It has been an exciting second week for the Michigan Tech Solar Car team. We received the wonderful news that our team membership grew 100% so now we have 6 enthusiastic members as we go into our design phase. Our new members are Joe Rushing, Jonathon Crowe (J.R.), and Christian Rose. Check out their bios and the bios of previous members here.

We are moving right along in the semester in terms of our solar car project and the larger Alternative Fuels Group (AFG) Enterprise. This week the larger Enterprise welcomed John Leinonen as a presenter for the Michigan initiative SmartZones. They work closely with universities in an attempt to use commercially viable enterprises to establish small businesses and work opportunities in the surrounding communities. He was very interested in a few of the projects that AFG is currently working on; in particular our smaller scale localized energy generation projects. Hopefully this opportunity pans out and an AFG project has the chance to positively affect our community in a big way. For more information on each of the SmartZones check out this interactive map.

Also in the news this week is the relief effort for Haiti. Of particular interest to our group and something that is getting more media attention is the use of solar technology to help in the recovery effort. MSNBC’s Cosmic Log has a great article on how solar technology is helping the survivors pump fresh water, cook food, keep schools running, and provide medical attention to the wounded. Since the local infrastructure has been destroyed solar energy allows for the production of power onsite for immediate use. Solar energy is the perfect solution to Haiti’s power needs. The country is one of the sunniest in the world and has long been considered one of the best places to attempt to produce a solar energy economy. I hope one day the country will be stable enough to show the world the viability of solar energy technology even for impoverished nations. This relief effort may be a small first step towards that kind of energy independence but the focus should remain on providing services for the survivors. I am happy to say that solar energy is and will continue to be a large part of that effort. Read the MSNBC article here.

I hope to bring more information about our efforts next week as we continue to get the new members up to speed and set our vision for the semester. I hope you all have a great week and thanks for reading.

~Dan