ATC 2010 Press
Graphic: Sierra Magazine
ATC is featured in the March/April 2010 Issue of: Sierra Magazine
WITH 1.6 BILLION PEOPLE LIVING OFF THE GRID, the financial and environmental costs pile up quickly. Residents of the world’s poorest nations sometimes spend a third of their income on kerosene, a fuel that poisons lungs and poses a fire hazard; a kerosene lantern emits 550 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. Battery-powered lights are an option, but could result in mountains of tiny cylinders of toxic waste. Inexpensive devices that harness the sun and wind can supply small amounts of power, come from local materials, and create local jobs. The developing world’s population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion over the next 40 years, so these innovative energy savers can’t come soon enough.
More at: Sierra Magazine
ATC 2009 Press
April 2009, ATC is featured in this video from: The University of Michigan
February and March 2009 were busy months at ATC.
Read about our Prototype Solar Refrigerator project in Guatemala
Also we prototyped a Treadle Pump with the University of Michigan BLUELab in Guatemala
More at:
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ATC 2008 Press
2008 – John Barrie Speaks on Sustainable and Appropriate Technology at Futuropolois 2058 Conference in Singapore
More at: John Barrie,
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2008 ATC – Lindberg Grant Recipient – University of Michigan
The Lindbergh Foundation announced today that John Barrie, B.S.’83, M.Arch.’85, from The Appropriate Technology Collaborative in Ann Arbor, MI, received the Lindbergh Grant for his project entitled “Creating and Disseminating an Efficient, Cost Effective Universal LED Circuit Board Design as a Replacement for Kerosene Lamps in Central America.”
More than 2.1 billion people live without access to electricity. Another billion live with unreliable access to power. The vast majority of these people use kerosene to light their homes and businesses, but this light source produces a poor quality, smoke-filled illumination and has the potential to cause fires, burns and lung disease. Kerosene lamps produce more greenhouse gasses per unit of illumination than any other common light source. According to a 2005 Science magazine article, 190 million metric tones of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere annually. And, kerosene is expensive. The cost of kerosene lighting costs more per unit than what is paid in the developed world.
More at: University of Michigan
Check out: Lindbergh Foundation Website
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2008 Boston Innovation Prize Winner
From ZDNet:
Forty years ago the protagonist in “The Graduate” was told the magic word for the future was “plastics.” I would suggest the magic word for our future now is “water.” Two Michigan innovators just won a prize for an air conditioning system that uses water as the coolant and carbon in the compression turbine. John Barrie and Dr. Norbert Müller recently won an award for coming up with the best plan to cut energy use in air conditioning systems. The goal: reduce energy use in home and small businesses during the air conditioning season. In places like Dubai that can be year round.
I had a chance to talk with Barrie by phone. He lives in Ann Arbor and Müller lives just up the road in East Lansing, MI. Muller’s on the Mechanical Enginering faculty there at Michigan State. Barrie runs a non-profit and designs low cost environmental solutions for the poorer parts of the globe.
Using water as an air conditioning coolant is not new, Barrie explained. Some large systems in Europe and Japan use it already. Here’s a five-year-old engineering abstract from Japan: it describes a water-coolant system. The catch in the past has been the need for expensive, high-speed turbines
on the compression side to make the water a viable coolant.
More at: ZDNet
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ATC 2007 Press
2007 Michigan State Edison Prize winning design of a solar powered refrigerator:
ATC Michigan State University Design Day – Winning Project
2007 Article about The Appropriate Technology Collaborative:
As we are mentioned in the press more frequently, sometimes we find we have been mentioned somewhere but were not aware of it in real time. If you find posts about The Appropriate Technology Collaborative, or if we are mentioned in other media please contact us and let us know!
Thanks,
jsbarrie