RAPID: Wind Energy and Rainwater Harvesting Solutions for Sustainable Recovery of Haiti

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Following the earthquake of January 12, 2010, two areas of importance for RAPID response are water and energy. Haiti is a country with abundant rainfall but inadequate water and sanitation systems, which now have been largely demolished by the earthquake. Furthermore, Haiti, even before the earthquake, had extremely low electric power production and distribution. To address these two key areas of need, two novel technologies will be deployed and tested. For water collection and treatment, a system has been designed for combined rainwater harvesting and treatment using porous clay ceramics. In addition to deploying and demonstrating this system in Jacmel, its effectiveness in terms of capacity, treatment rate, and resulting water quality will be tested. For renewable energy production, a novel 5 kW wind turbine designed specifically for deployment in a disaster relief scenario will be deployed, demonstrated, and tested. Additionally, a meteorological measurement station to characterize wind resources at the Jacmel location will be set up. Finally, fine resolution numerical atmospheric simulations will be conducted, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to map the wind resources and potential wind turbine placement sites around Port-au-Prince and other sites in Haiti. From the deployment of these two novel devices, there will be numerous "lessons learned" about the ease of deployment in a disaster, their efficiency of operation, and their effectiveness and reliability. These findings are anticipated to be translatable to other developing world locations. The disaster in Haiti presents a time sensitive opportunity to advance technologies for built better sustainable response and reconstruction in the developing world. Bruce Hamilton Program Director Environmental Sustainability 3/26/10