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Generating blueEnergy An inside look at the making of a global energy service organization that produces wind turbines locally to bring sustainable energy services and economic opportunity to underserved regions of the world. Starting with proof of concept in Nicaragua, Mathias Craig and blueEnergy have their sights set on making a huge impact on the lives of the world’s poor. 2008-08-06T08:17:17-07:00 4d30446c46c43001f1c2749b25277083 fatsyndication Not for the weak http://plone.org/ 8cd83750a3a2fe6cef7cac682a804b02 Mathias Craig 2008-08-06T08:17:17-07:00 2008-08-06T08:17:17-07:00 Someday I'd like to get back to wind power http://plone.org/ 54c771082b9a1e8ecf31cad45cbb5a8f I started blueEnergy because I wanted to build wind turbines and help people in the process. I eschewed corporate jobs, even ones in the renewable energy sector, because I didn't want to spend the next 10 years of my life behind a desk; I wanted to get my hands dirty! How ironic then that I find myself behind a desk 16 hours a day. Mathias Craig 2008-07-27T19:51:05-07:00 2008-07-27T19:51:05-07:00 The elusive quest for growth (funding) http://plone.org/ 56a8444985d434067e6f1981d5aba4e1 I want to add my voice to the growing chorus in the nonprofit sector clamoring for more unrestricted funds that can be used for contingencies, internal capacity development and infrastructure building. Mathias Craig 2008-07-10T13:38:49-07:00 2008-07-10T13:38:49-07:00 Who is this guy? Agent 007.2? http://plone.org/ f2b5591ab83f416301f4bdaf6c9e8e67 The blueEnergy Brain Trust is made up of its three founders: Lâl Marandin (currently President of blueEnergy France, Guillaume Craig (currently Director of blueEnergy Nicaragua) and myself. Each of us brings to the table a very different skill set: Lâl is the opener, Guillaume is the closer and I'm the glue that keeps it together. Mathias Craig 2008-06-19T21:29:33-07:00 2008-06-19T21:29:33-07:00 ... the bitter [followup to "An incredible trip... the sweet"] http://plone.org/ 72bb5e868aba764995e0bfb2d561dbc4 For all that is going well with blueEnergy, it's not all roses. We have constant reminders that we live and work in a difficult, marginalized place. We chose to work where working, and life in general, are hard in order to create opportunities for development for people who've rarely had any. Mathias Craig 2008-06-08T00:00:00-07:00 2008-06-10T17:06:41-07:00 An incredible trip... the sweet http://plone.org/ 99906fd8698f8046087ac4fa3156f941 I was recently down in Nicaragua for what was probably the busiest 12 days of my life. blueEnergy is growing in so many ways and in so many directions, it’s an incredible site to see in action, viewed from the field. Mathias Craig 2008-06-04T00:00:00-07:00 2008-06-10T17:03:12-07:00 Doing it right is far more important then what you do http://plone.org/ 3cf5bf72b933664ae54a54da4da7006a When it comes to energy, and I suspect many other applications, it doesn't really matter which technology you use - wind, solar, hydro - if you do it well. Mathias Craig 2008-05-26T05:40:03-07:00 2008-05-26T05:40:03-07:00 Betz's Law http://plone.org/ b3ae1e842c79bb9e023a2d59eb72e258 Albert Betz was a German physicist who first determined that the maximum amount of energy you can extract from the wind is far less than 100% - its 59.3%. If you were to try and take more energy out of the wind with a wind turbine, you would slow down the wind, creating a wall of wind in front of the turbine which would divert high energy wind around it. In the end, any energy beyond 59.3% is fool's gold - you just can't capture it. Mathias Craig 2008-04-01T11:25:03-08:00 2008-04-09T11:22:24-07:00 An ode to the iceberg http://plone.org/ 94a065848cab1705175ec714e2aa209f Ah, the good old iceberg analogy. It's over used because it effectively illustrates a nearly universal point - that most people don't understand what goes into any given final product. We humans have a natural tendency to focus on the 10% that rises above the water's surface without appreciating the 90% that supports the whole structure from below. Mathias Craig 2008-03-24T16:32:36-08:00 2008-03-24T16:32:36-08:00 There's something better than innovation... http://plone.org/ a024d9d60fcb78ec118c1714086c238c "Innovation" is all the rage these days. The media, the public and funders are obsessed with innovation, constantly seeking out and hyping the latest ideas, models and products. But in all the hustle and bustle a key point is missed, that there's something better than innovation - it's called gettin' 'er done! Mathias Craig 2008-03-17T13:37:37-08:00 2008-03-17T13:37:37-08:00 Otherpower in another world, Part 3 http://plone.org/ a4c0cee99d672c277e6be5ba4e1ded46 We got 'er done! That's what George said and I'd have to agree. We had an incredibly productive week and took some big steps towards our goal of building a more robust wind turbine that is able to withstand the harsh environment of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. Mathias Craig 2008-03-03T23:28:41-08:00 2008-03-03T23:28:41-08:00 Otherpower in another world, Part 2 http://plone.org/ 729855d2111c00c05211479447ee3b4f It's all about priorities. We've bitten off a huge bite with our ambitious vision and can't get around the fact that there's way more to do than we can possibly do. Having the Otherpower crew here means that we have to prioritize more than ever because it's easy to get sidetracked with projects that are interesting, but that don't meet our core needs. This week is about finding solutions to some of our core needs. Mathias Craig 2008-02-26T14:28:08-08:00 2008-03-03T22:31:07-08:00 Otherpower in another world, Part 1 http://plone.org/ 41cbf1454bd43cdc95db128e80265041 blueEnergy has problems - who doesn't? - but thankfully we've got solutions too. We've recently had some issues with some of our wind turbines overheating due to sustained high energy production on the windy Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. To be honest I'm happy we have an over production problem and not an underproduction one. We have a plan to address this issue and are moving aggressively on it. To me, this technical failure and its resolution is the perfect illustration of blueEnergy's strength - not that we or our products are perfect, far from it - rather that we are commitment to long-term solutions and are building the capacity to provide them. Mathias Craig 2008-02-21T08:08:43-08:00 2008-03-03T13:01:48-08:00 Build the institutional brain http://plone.org/ 8985d13122f9b8dc3f7dd3f332dba898 If you have high staff turn over, say because of a high ratio of short-term volunteers, you absolutely need an IT backbone and an organization culture that promotes the conversion of individual knowledge into institutional knowledge. The same is true if you have a distributed organization where people work asynchronously. Mathias Craig 2008-02-04T11:43:56-08:00 2008-02-04T11:43:56-08:00 Wind turbines are billboards http://plone.org/ a8a72b3276c5b96528368b8043caed3b Wind power is different from most other power generation technologies in that it’s high-profile by it’s very nature. Mathias Craig 2008-01-28T19:19:12-08:00 2008-01-28T19:19:12-08:00