Costa Rica 2016 Renewable Energy Workshop Registration Open Now!
I’m offering two workshops in Costa Rica next year, one in a new and exciting venue, and one in our long-time venue in Mastatal.
Solar Electricity for the Developing World
Las Alturas Reserve (http://www.lasalturas.com), Costa Rica * January 1-10, 2016
$1,485 includes program, food, dorm lodging, and in-country travel
Details: http://www.renewablereality.net/pvdw2016.html
We will study the basics of off-grid solar-electric design while installing 3-4 solar-electric lighting and cell phone charging systems for our facility and local families. The workshop will take place in a large (~50 square-mile) and remote private reserve in southern Costa Rica, near the border with Panama. Very few people are able to visit this special place, and we’ll be spending a week living and working there, with time to explore nature and the community while learning and contributing.
You can see lots of photos of last year’s PVDW program at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153217676484252.1073741835.338972999251&type=3
and
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153217081664252.1073741833.338972999251&type=3
* “Really loved the course! As someone with no prior experience in the solar world, I feel this course excellently introduced me to its great potential and great complexity. I was also excited to learn about its excellent application in the developing world.”
* “Eco-tourism doesn’t get any more authentic.”
Renewable Energy for the Developing World-Hands-On
Rancho Mastatal (http://www.ranchomastatal.com), Costa Rica * April 2-10, 2016
$1,325 includes program, food, dorm lodging, and in-country travel
Details: http://www.renewablereality.net/redwho-2016.html
Learn the basics of six renewable energy technologies and their application for the developing world while helping local families. We’ll study solar cooking, solar hot water, solar-, wind-, and hydro-electricity, and methane through installing three systems, as well as classroom and field labs. Our Costa Rican partners bring local enthusiasm and expertise. This is our 14th year with this successful program that will help you understand renewable energy concepts, and could change your perspective on life. It’s an eco-educational vacation where you get your hands, brain, and heart involved.
You can see lots of photos of past years’ REDWHO program at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152357478394252.1073741827.338972999251&type=3
and
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150738522954252.459875.338972999251&type=3
* “This is the course that changed my life. I can’t recommend it enough.”
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Honored Visitor from Costa Rica
I’m delighted this month to be hosting my dear friend and colleague, Eugenio Garcia Lopez, formerly of the Durika Community in Costa Rica. Some of you know him as the charismatic and charming guide who shepherded the groups in the workshops I coordinated in Durika. If you are NW Washington and want to connect with Eu while he is here, contact me about a gathering we are having in his honor the weekend of August 29. Eugenio will also be helping me with the PV workshop in Las Alturas, Costa Rica in January.
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Questions?
Have a renewable energy question? Send it to me via e-mail and I’ll try to either answer it here in this newsletter and/or directly to you, drawing on my extensive archive of my own and others’ articles, and my long-time experience living off-grid and working in the renewable energy industry.
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Guemes North Homestead Internships
From my most recent intern, who is now working with a Seattle solar installation company:
“Deciding to dive into homestead living with the focus of renewable energy with Ian was not only life changing but the most educational, hands on, and informative pursuit of that goaI I can imagine. Upon completing three months with Ian and pursuing work within the renewable field I found myself hired with ease based on the experience and knowledge I took from my internship. Ian’s homestead is a place of unique opportunity for education. Ian, a career educator in renewables provides you with his time, his writing, and his abundant resources to provide his interns with ample ability to intelligently follow their own schemes at the homestead and beyond. His unique teaching style simplifies how we comprehend electrical theory, particularly emphasizing solar, wind, and homestead applications. Hard work, dedication, and a productive attitude toward the Eden that is Guemes Island (especially Ian’s homestead) is all you need to equip yourself with. I have made a great resource and friend in Ian and the Guemes Island community, a place that is truly ‘over the rainbow’.”
— Cole A.