By Rea Cu
Inspire many, collaborate with each other and uplift sustainability. That was what the 2015 Sikat Design Challenge generated from students that joined the seven-monthlong competition.
Harnessing the innovativeness of the youth, as well as their passion for helping local communities was what the Sikat Solar Challenge Foundation Inc. (SSCFI) looked for when it launched the competition late last year. The culmination night took place on February 2 at the Loft, Manansala, Rockwell in Makati City.
With the support of First Gen Corp., Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and First Philippine Holdings Corp., the competition allowed the students to exercise their creativity and resourcefulness in terms of providing solutions.
“One of the objectives of Sikat Foundation is also to tap the innovativeness of the youth. That’s why we said maybe the universities can participate in addressing the problems of the communities. But instead of just a straight-forward technology kind of play, we said that it should benefit the community not just in terms of light, but also in terms of livelihood, in terms of education, in terms of the other things that you would be able to achieve if you have electricity,” Arthur A. de Guia, president of SSCFI explained.
College and university students were asked to create projects that run on renewable energy and one that will help sustain the livelihood of marginalized communities in the country, be it from the provision of electricity for illumination, potable water for drinking or wind energy to help generate power for households at night. Most were engineering students and pitched their proposed solutions before a panel of judges working in the renewable-energy industry.
Entries poured in from Luzon and the Visayas. A total of 13 universities participated, but only 6 pushed on to the semifinal round. Eventually, three returned to their alma mater as winners.
De Guia said this was just the beginning and that the future looks bright for young people and what they can do in terms of addressing the problems of communities without electricity.
“That’s why this is the first year. We started around March when we tried to go to the universities. And, of course, there is the intention of going for a second cycle. We are trying to tap the students to use their ingenuity and the emerging technologies in renewable energy in addressing the electricity issues and uplifting the lives of Filipinos in the long run.”
The six semifinalists included Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), Bulacan State University, De La Salle University (DLSU), Mapúa Institute of Technology, Silliman University and University of Santo Tomas.
When asked why no university or college came from the Mindanao region, Aloysius L. Santos, executive director at SSCFI, explained the project is still in the pilot testing stage and that its proponents have
power plants in the Visayas. “We wanted to learn in the first cycle and, hopefully, we’ll expand it next time.”
A special award was given to Team Luminaris of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines for having the most likes and shares on its project video on Twitter with 4,509 likes and 505 shares during the awards night.
The two runners up of the competition, which received P150,000 each to help continue developing their projects, were project “Tanglaw” created by Team Agilas from the ADMU and DLSU’s project “FlowE+” designed by Team Animo.
The Team Agilas project proposed the utilization of forest wastes, with the use of a pico hydro-electric generator turning the raw materials into charcoal briquettes the locals can sell. Since the selling of charcoal is no longer encouraged these days because of the practice of indiscriminate burning of trees, the team proposed a more sustainable way of creating charcoal. The project also aims to provide illumination to the local community and help children study at night.
Team Animo’s FlowE+ of the DLSU proposed the use of a microhydro-electric power plant with an aquaponics component. Water from a nearby river at its chosen community helped the machine generate electricty to power the school and several households and, at the same time, support an aquaponic project that grow both fish and vegetables. At the end of the cycle, the machine also generates cleaner water.
The winner of the competition was Team Carding’s project “Bathala” from Mapúa. It presented a rocket stove design where the user benefits four ways from a single machine. This machine utilizes heat energy from burning wood, can cook food, boil water and act as a thermoelectric generator that charges electronic devices. Indeed, a single machine offers a lot of potential for any community were it not for the steep price of acquiring one.
Jeremy de Leon, team captain at Mapúa’s Team Carding, said the ideas he and his teammates came up with were the practical outcomes from living the life of the locals in their host community, the hardships they face daily from the lack of electricity and lack of livelihood.
“Initially po, may iba po kaming idea for the community, pero pag dating po namin doon, doon na po namin binago. ’Yung sa tingin po namin ano mas angkop nga po para doon sa community,” de Leon said.
“Sa una po kasi niyan madami po talaga kaming ideas. Tapos noong napuntahan po namin ’yung location ng mga Dumagats na-realize po namin, saan po nila gagamitin yung malaking kuryente? So baka pwede na yung mga mabababang output ng kuryente. Tapos po nakita din po namin ’yung pagluluto nila parang ang gastos sa wood kasi po yung gamit nila is the traditional na three stone and wood lang na lutuan, iba pa pong set ’yung sa pagpapakulo ng tubig,” de Leon added.
And like the good students they are, they gathered their observations and experience within the community, their creativity and skills to address the community’s problems and these gave birth to the Bathala project.
“So na-realize po namin kaya namin siyang pagsamahin sa isa with less wood na gagamitin. Tapos idadagdag pa po namin ’yung parang generator po para naman po if ever lang na kinulang ’yung kuryente, meron po silang back up na source.” he added.
The team received a P200,000 prize to further develop their project and, of course, the bragging rights plus a trip to EDC’s hybrid solar and wind farm in Ilocos Norte. Through it all, and despite the many challenges, the students never wavered in their desire to extend to their host communities what it is like to have electricity, clean water and a means of livelihood that sustains life.
“Intitally we came out trying to inspire the students. But hearing their stories on how they interacted with the communities and looking at their inventions and projects, we were actually inspired by their actions and inspired to actually move it forward to a
bigger competition.
We see how they raised awareness to the problem of unelectrified communities and how difficult life is. So, we’d like to continue the effort,” Santos said.