Engineering students help with sustainable energy in Tanzania

Engineering students from Warwick’s Engineering Without Borders (EWB) society are heading to Tanzania to help develop and maintain sustainable energy resources.

The group of students, comprising two second-year students and two third-years, will travel to the village of Kemgesi on September 1st. Whilst there they will maintain previously installed technology and set up new solar panels at the local community centre.

These installed solar panels will help to power essential equipment, such as printers and photocopiers, and will also be used to aid with, for example, phone charging, something which helps establish businesses in the village.

Kemgesi, which is close to the Serengeti National Park, will see the students work with the company ILoveWindPower through a Member Led Partnership (MLP).

Tom Pearson, one of the team’s third-year students and MLP Coordinator, commented that the upcoming trip would be “significant, because as students in the UK, we have the ability to make a positive impact on less fortunate communities.”

Speaking of the strong relationship the Engineering department has formed, through their previous visits, with their partner in Tanzania, he also added: “We have gained more and more understanding about how we can truly develop the community in a positive way.

“The long term aspect of this project is one of the reasons for me wanting to be involved.

“I know that I’m contributing to a larger cause and the small differences made each year are sustainable because they are maintained and re-affirmed each following year.”

The EWB group will also provide interactive workshops on establishing businesses and how to build safer, more energy-efficient cooking devices: rocket stoves.

This year’s team are the third from Warwick to travel to Kemgesi. They follow students who, in 2013, set up a wind turbine in the village, and 2014’s team, who went to maintain the first turbine, build a second, and to install solar panels.

Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Thrift, said of the project: “I’m so pleased to support Warwick’s Engineering Without Borders team. They will be putting the skills they have acquired at Warwick to practical use and helping to transform the Kemgesi community.”

The initiative is part-supported by the university’s Student Event Support scheme, which distributes funds to help students put their skills into practice.

Commenting on this fact, Professor Thrift also said: “It’s fantastic that the Student Event Support is being used in exactly the way it is intended, to benefit students at the University of Warwick by giving them the opportunity to develop and use key skills where they are most needed.”