And the story continues...

After laying the concrete at both the dam and turbine site we were once again extraordinarily lucky to avoid rain overnight. While waiting for the concrete to dry we focused on the electrical components and continued with the pipe layout. Along the way, we ran into many Costa Rican critters. The circuit board was filled with ants that multiplied as we continued to work with the wiring system. It was one of our slower days, as we couldn't finalize the piping system until the shipment of our valve for the top of the dam arrived, and the mounting of the electrical system was delayed due to faulty expanders. After two rigorous days of work behind us, and two more ahead, it was perfect timing for the team to take a brief breather. Together we went into the local town, Dominical, and enjoyed an evening of delicious Costa Rican cuisine.

Abby and Jinhwa work with the wiring that eventually would connect the generator to the inverter.

Brandyn and Lisbeth cutting PVC pipe

One of the monster spiders keeping our computers company while we worked outside

Jinhwa, Professor Hightower and Alice struggling to mount the heavy inverter, and just before the ceramic expanders failed us.

On Day Four the whole team donned their "Harvey Mudd College: The Most Amazing College You've Never Heard Of" T-shirts, knowing that it would be action packed (and full of photo opportunities!). With the 7am opening of the hardware store we received the crucial valve for the top of the dam that we immediately put in place. We were finally able to finalize and permanently cement in the pipe layout we had been planning for days. Brandyn and Alice worked on drilling clamps into the rock at the upper piping section to secure the pipes, while Lisbeth, Abby, Jinhwa and Professor Hightower continued to work on the electrical system. 

Alice gets on the roof to wire the circuit breaker from above

The team in action! Jinhwa drills new holes to mount the inverter while Abby continues to work on the wire system now protected by flexible PVC pipe

At lunch came a much needed break, but also the dreaded rain we had been avoiding for the past four days. Although it only lasted for less than an hour, our already treacherous path up to the dam site was turned into a slick slope with minimal footing. Carrying 6 meter PVC pipes was suddenly much harder, but the team worked together to cement and secure the pipes all the way down to the generator site on flat ground. Without securing the final pipe to the turbine, tests were run to confirm that the pipe and dam system were successful and carried a strong water flow down to the last pipe. Jinhwa, Abby and Professor Hightower mounted the inverter and connected it to both the generator and circuit break. At 5pm we stopped for the day, with only the last pipe to connect and a few electrical details to finalize.

First test for water pressure down at the bottom: Success!

The dorms we hope to power with our hydroelectric station.

The valve, closed, and the dam exposed to the forces of the creek as we slowly broke down our water diversion system.

Lisbeth falling on the path and demonstrating the slickness of this muddy slope! Needless to say we were covered head to toe in mud by the end of the day. 

Friday, June 10th, was the team's last day of work for this June visit. Alice and Professor Hightower had to leave early at 11am to catch a flight, while the rest of the team would leave the following morning. We had scheduled this day for troubleshooting, and upon waking up at the usual 6am hour we put the final touches on our system and prepared to run it. By around 8am, we did our first test run, and while we did have constant water pressure at the bottom that spun the turbine, the inverter gave no power reading. After Jinhwa and Hightower tweaked the electrical system, we tried again, but the inverter still did not give the proper readings. We considered four possible reasons for this problem:

1) That we wired the system improperly such that it would run once we addressed this issue

2) The turbine is not operating properly

3) The inverter is not operating properly

4) Both the turbine and inverter are operating properly, but they are not compatible. 

The team put an enormous amount of effort into exploring each of these possibilities, long after Alice and Hightower's plane took off in San Jose. After measuring the voltage across almost every set of points and checking the wiring over and over again, reasons 1 and 3 seemed unlikely to be the cause of the problem. Professor Hightower noted that on occasion there was a periodic whine he recognized as the sound of the inverter trying to turn itself on. We were in constant touch with the turbine manufacturers and sent numerous videos of the system, but were unable to identify the source of our problem. 

Brandyn turns on the dam by opening the valve.

The Harvey Mudd Costa Rica Project Team with our running turbine.

As the title of this post implies, the story will continue. This team of Harvey Mudd students successfully installed a dam, pipeline and water flow control system that attached to a completed, but defective grid-tied micro-hydroturbine system. We are all very committed to this project and are determined to see the Firecstone center dorms powered by our hydroelectric station. We are in the middle of documenting and planning the next stage of this project so that we can successfully complete the job we set out to do.

Off to a good start

What a successful past two days! We were a bit concerned after spending all of yesterday working to divert the flow from the creek because we weren't able to obtain a large drainpipe from the local hardware store. AFter lots of creativity and hard work, we rigged a multi-pipe system as seen blow to divert most of the flow. We crossed our fingers and hoped that it wouldn't rain, despite the fact that it had thunder stormed in the evening consistently for the past week. Brandyn finished assembling the generator, and after a hard days work Chef Alice introduced Jinhwa and Lisbeth to their first Sloppy Joe experience, yummm!

Alice surveys the dam site and makes plans for the water diversion process.

The final water diversion set-up. With six PVC pipes, lots of rope and sandbags, we successfully diverted 90% of the flow.

Herman, the friendly toad, comes to visit us after dinner. He wants some Sloppy Joe too!

Today we woke up at 6am and to our delight there had been no major rainstorm and our pipe system was still in place. We split up into teams: Jinhwa and Professor Hightower took on planning the turbine site, Lisbeth and Abby planned the 35 meter pipe path from the dam to the generator and began clearing the path with their machetes and digging trenches to bury the PVC pipe, and Alice and Brandyn took on the construction of the dam.

The whole team gathers after breakfast to make plans for the day.

Abby, Alice and Brandyn at the dam sight.

Jinhwa and Professor McFarlane making a platform for the generator and planning the pipe route.

Lisbeth and Abby, armed and ready with their machetes.

Captain Jinhwa with her power tools!

Brandyn drilling holes for the rebar to support the concrete.

Lisbeth beginning to dig her trench to bury the PVC pipe.

Abby taking a break from the hard shoveling work in the thick of the jungle.

Jinhwa constructing the turbine platform.

The dam site with plywood reinforcements, rebar, piping and filter system. Ready for the concrete to be poured!

Jinhwa getting her hands dirty leveling the platform concrete with Greddy.

Brandyn and Alice with their dam set-up pre concrete.

Now, all the concrete has been laid and once again we are crossing our fingers for no rain!! After all that hard work, we're off to bed early. Good night!!

We're here!!!

Hello!! Welcome to the new and improved Costa Rica Project. As you may have guessed from our previous post (or lack of them), things didn’t  go as planned. Back in February-March we ran into some unexpected complications and wound up sending only two team members, Lisbeth Santana and Abby Korth, to the FCRE site for another site visit over spring break. Because the project timeline and commitments were larger than anticipated, the project schedule didn’t fit some of the team members’ schedules and therefore we lost some members and added a new one. Thank you so much, Kristen, Alanna and Spencer for your help!! And welcome, Brandyn Carlson!!

Yesterday, we all arrived at the San Jose airport in the morning, but unfortunately Jin-hwa missed her flight due to exceptionally long lines checking baggage. This was a little speed bump in our schedule, but it gave the rest of the team an opportunity to go sightseeing in San Jose.  First, we went to an authentic Costa Rican restaurant, Sotas, for lunch. Next we went to the local Costa Rican Art Museum in La Aduana  and checked out a break dancing contest as well the art exhibit. Check out the video and picture below!

Lisbeth, Abby, Alice and Brandyn in a local park in front of a beautiful, but sick, tree

Checking out the art exhibits

The team with our sightseeing van

It started to rain, and so to pass the time we got an up-close and personal tour of the San Jose neighborhoods, and then went grocery shopping for the week. At 8pm we picked up Jin-hwa at the airport, met up with Geovanny, our driver from the FCRE, and started our 4 hour journey to the Pitzer Costa Rica campus.

Now, Monday June 6^th, we are finally here as a team in Baru, Costa Rica, just outside of San Isidro. Jinhwa and Professor Hightower successfully checked the turbine and inverter through Costa Rica customs (we were very concerned about this step!). Lisbeth and Jin-hwa are off picking up all the supplies, Brandyn is diligently assembling our turbine system, and Abby and Alice are off gallivanting in the jungle lugging sandbags up the slippery creek slopes and making plans to start construction.

Lisbeth and Abby outside the dorms

Brandyn assembling the turbine

Professors McFarlane and Hightower hiking up to the dam site

Abby filling sandbags to divert the stream flow to enable the dam construction

The supplies delivery truck just arrived!! Time to get Muddy (hehe, get it?!).

We’ll keep you posted!

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to the Costa Rica Project!

We are a team of Harvey Mudd students in the midst of planning the installation of a dam and micro-hydroelectric station in Terciopelo Creek of Firestone Reserve (FCRE) in Baru, Costa Rica. We will install our design over Harvey Mudd's Spring Break 2011. We depart to San Jose, Costa Rica on the evening of March 12^th and return to Claremont on March 21st. This is a tight schedule for a big project, so we've been busy designing our project since the end of last semester.

Why are we building a dam and hydroelectric station in Costa Rica? You might guess that we're trying to initiate a trend of renewable energy into Baru, Costa Rica, but that's not the case. In fact, 99% of the electrical energy generated in Costa Rica is from renewable sources, making it the world leader in renewable energy generation. More than 80% of this energy comes from hydroelectric plants, but the problem is these are LARGE scale hydroelectric plants that have huge effects on the surrounding ecosystems. Costa Rica is economically dependent on the revenue brought in from tourists attracted to the breathtaking wildlife and scenery of the island, so destruction of these environments is not a viable consequence of energy production.

Micro-hydroelectric stations, however, are an ideal form of energy production in tropical countries where rainfall is frequent. These small-scale systems can be powered off of streams where small dams are consciously installed to minimally impact the surrounding habitat while still being very energy efficient. For example, our project will run off of the flow at Terciopelo Creek, as seen below, which has a median wet season flow rate of 33.33 liters per second, and given 60% system efficiency will generate on average about 2KW of renewable energy. 

We are carefully considering where to build our dam to disrupt the smallest amount of flow possible. This is just one of the many decisions we're currently making to optimize our design, but before we get too in depth, meet the team!

Faculty Advisors:

Adrian Hightower is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College who specializes in the study and design of nanostructured electrodes for fuel cells and rechargeable batteries. Over the past eight years Professor Hightower has been conducting international research and facilitating projects addressing sustainability, renewable energy and the water-energy nexus. He will be joining our team in Costa Rica to supervise the installation process.

Donald McFarlane is a Professor of Biology at Pitzer College and works in the Claremont Joint Science Department. He is also the Director of Research at the Firestone Center where we will be installing the dam and hydroelectric generator. Professor McFarlane will be on-site during the first few days of the project to approve the precise positioning of the dam and provide general logistical guidance and support.

Student Researchers:

(From left to right: Alanna Weisberg, Jinhwa Chun, Abby Korth, Alice Conant, Lisbeth Santana, Spencer Tung and Kristen Warren)

Jinhwa Chun is a junior engineering major at HMC, and is our student project manager. She is a person who likes to take initiative once she sets her mind on a project, which is why she pursued the Costa Rica Project and applied for the funding to make it possible. She has many academic interests such as chemical engineering, project engineering, pharmaceutics, water quality, power plants, renewable energy (especially solar and water!), management, volunteering, mentoring, and the list goes on. She's also a strong believer of technical leadership!

Kristen Warren is a junior engineering major at HMC, and is currently interested in bioengineering. She is particularly committed to the Costa Rica Project because of her emotional attachment to Latin America. Kristen was born in Guatemala and has been looking for the opportunity to work on a project in/for Latin America for a while.

Spencer Tung is a junior engineer and very excited to be working on our project! He is currently concentrating his studies in both mechanical and electrical engineering and is a key member of our dam design group.

Lisbeth Santana is a sophomore math major and her bilingual abilities in both English and Spanish are a crucial asset to our team. She is currently in charge of contacting our project supervisors in Costa Rica as well as universities in Costa Rica to incorporate local students into our design and implementation process. She has also studied engineering at Mudd and is excited to apply her previous studies to the design process.

Abby Korth is a sophomore engineering major who plans on pursuing a career in either civil or environmental engineering. She is very interested in the issue and search for sustainable renewable energy sources and currently is working on a project teaching high school students about solar power through solar canoe building. Abby is also an active member of the school's environmental club, Engineers for a Sustainable World.

Alice Conant is a sophomore mathematical biology major who is specifically interested in securing reliable energy sources in developing countries. She is very excited to learn how to build a dam and hydroelectric station through hands-on experience and looks forward to expanding upon this technical foundation in the future.

Alanna Weisberg is a freshman at HMC. She is helping the team by looking at different types of mini hydroelectric systems that are commercially available for our project. Along with Kristen and Lisbeth, Alanna will be in charge of the electrical aspect of the project. 

We are also hoping to collaborate with the following organizations and universities in Costa Rica:

-       Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)

-        Asociacion de Amigos de la Naturaleza del Pacifico Central y Sur (ASANA)

-       Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica (TEC)