In­genieure ohne Gren­zen e.V.

As a first project, the Ulm regional group decided to electrify schools in Mozambique with solar island systems. The project was initiated by Professor Peter Adelmann from Ulm and Dr. Boa Cuamba, Professor for Renewable Energies at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo.

The initial situation
Mozambique is one of the world's least developed countries, ranking 185th out of 186 (2012) in the HDI. The Human Development Index (HDI) is published annually and assesses the health, education and standard of living of a country's population. Also due to the civil war, which lasted until 1992, many adults have enjoyed less than two years of schooling. In 2011, the illiteracy rate in the country was 45%.
To improve the educational situation of the adult rural population, the Ulm regional group decided to electrify public schools in the Gaza province of Mozambique. Equipping the schools with electric light was intended to enable evening classes for adults. The local cooperation was carried out with Caritas Regional de Chókwè.

The project
After the approval of the project by the association's office in Berlin, the exploration took place in spring 2011. This is obligatory for a project of Engineers without Borders and serves to verify the sense of a project and to obtain information necessary for the technical realization of the project. The exploration, as well as the later implementation, was carried out together with Basilio Tamele and André Cuinica, two students of the Eduardo Mondlane University. In addition to the pure equipping of schools with light, the project focused on the transfer of knowledge, in accordance with the self-image of the regional group. The two students were therefore among the first ten people trained by the company fosera to become small entrepreneurs in order to increase the dissemination of solar island systems. At the same time, the company also set up a factory for micro solar systems in Maputo.
In the course of the investigation it turned out that two of the schools should be connected to the local power grid in the near future. These were therefore not further considered for implementation. However, the remaining twelve schools proved to be suitable for the equipment with so-called pico solar systems. In addition to the school's classrooms, an adjoining teachers' room or office was supplied with electricity. This room was always equipped separately from the classrooms and also received a charging station for mobile phones. With the possibility of charging mobile phones, the communities were to build up reserves for possible repairs.
The evaluation of the project will take place in two stages. A first evaluation was carried out just three months after implementation. The second part of the evaluation will take place in autumn 2013. 600 pupils had already registered for evening classes at the time of the first evaluation. The school programme will run for three years and will mainly include reading, Portuguese and mathematics. At the moment, more than 1,100 pupils are taking part in the lessons! But also minor technical problems and thefts were revealed in the first evaluation. However, the most affected community, with seven of the nine stolen lamps, expressed the will to replace the lamps self-financed.

Due to the success, which became apparent very quickly after the implementation of the first project, the regional group decided to continue supporting the evening classes in Mozambique and to equip further schools with solar off-grid systems. The schools are located in the province of Cabo Delgado in the north-east of the country. The project is carried out together with the Mozambican non-governmental organisation Associação Progresso and initially comprised eight schools. In the course of the exploration, which was carried out by Rudi and Christina in May 2013, seven of the schools proved to be suitable. The eighth was severely damaged by a storm in 2012. Due to a lack of funds for repairs, the roof could not yet be reconstructed. Currently, preparations are being made for the implementation of the project.

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Also in cooperation with Associação Progresso, the reconstruction of a dam at a vocational school in the province of Niassa in northern Mozambique is to be carried out. The school is located near the city of Lichinga and teaches new cultivation methods and technical skills in the field of agriculture. The dam served the school to irrigate the fields during the dry season and has already broken twice. The project is carried out together with the Biberach University of Applied Sciences, which supports the regional group with its knowledge and experience. After the exploration at the end of 2012 it was decided to implement the project. The dam is to be reinforced and enlarged with cement in order to be able to store a larger amount of water. 
In the course of the exploration, a medical station built by Doctors without Borders was visited in Lichinga. As the power supply of the infirmary is not secured and the facility might need incubators for premature babies, a project in this area is currently being prepared.

In addition to our projects in Mozambique, a project in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh was developed last year. The school offers 170 children free lessons in English. The quality of teaching currently suffers from a frequent interruption of the power supply. However, electric power is essential for the operation of fans in the hot south of the country. The regional group Ulm / Neu-Ulm is to stabilize the supply of electric power to the school, and if possible to reduce the school's energy costs. The exploration of the project is planned for autumn 2013.

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Especially in regions close to the equator, solar cookers can be used as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to cooking. However, these cookers can only be used during the day without storage and are therefore not suitable for the working population. For this purpose the technical team of the regional group is working on a solar cooker with a heat storage tank. In addition to the storage tank, the cooker will consist of a gutter collector and the actual cooking unit. In addition, the heat medium will be pumped around by a membrane pump developed by the team. The electrical energy required for this and for the control system will be generated by a picosolar system. A prototype of the collector and the pump was built in addition to the concept already developed.

In order to give small farmers in Tanzania an additional income, the Heinrich Sinz School in Ichenhausen came up with the idea of designing an incubator for chicken eggs. This incubator should be easy to produce locally and, apart from solar energy, should not require any additional energy. Within the framework of the project, which is carried out as a project work of the school, the pupils carry out a practical examination, which is part of the secondary school leaving certificate in the learning support area. Optimal breeding conditions for hen's eggs are between 37.8 and 38.2 °C, and the humidity must also be approximately constant. In order to be able to maintain these conditions, an incubator is to be built from an old fridge-freezer combination.

The freezing unit serves as a heat storage unit, the incubation of the eggs takes place in the cooling unit. A collector for heating is connected to the storage tank. Air was chosen as the heating medium, as leaks in the system do not release any substances that could be harmful to the environment or health. The storage tank is additionally filled with stones or similar to increase the heat capacity. The incubation unit is connected to the storage tank in an adjustable manner via pipe connections. The electric current required for the regulation and circulation of the air is generated by a picosolar system.

In addition to the solar cooker with heat storage and incubators for chicken eggs, simple LED lamps were developed by the technical team. These can be easily reproduced on site and thus enable a stronger involvement of the local population. In concrete terms, the two lamps consist of a breadboard and a row of white LEDs. One of the lamps has been designed as a reading lamp and is placed in a test tube. The other one can, for example, be built into a jam jar and serve as a small ceiling lamp. Both lamps have six white LEDs with a total output of 1.5W, which is equivalent to a 20W light bulb.