Over Spring Break, Union University engineering students and faculty traveled to Honduras to help an orphanage with its electrical power needs. Senior engineering students Seth Guiler and Nathan Parke along with engineering professor Dr. Randy Schwindt installed a small, grid-tied photovoltaic system and built a solar water heating system to be installed in the next few weeks. Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca, Honduras, has about 500 children and 100 adult workers, and its electrical power bill runs in the tens of thousands of dollars each month. The Union Engineering solar projects, combined with conservation efforts, will help the orphanage’s budget and operations.
“The goal was to provide model systems that would provide learning opportunities for Union students and for Orphanage Emmanuel which could then be built out over time,” said Dr. Schwindt. The solar water heating project is the senior capstone project of Seth Guiler and his team-mate Chelsea Johnson. The solar photovoltaic system is the senior project of Nathan Parke and Erin Picard, both of whom visited the orphanage in September of 2015 (along with Chris Boccarossa, Dr. Schwindt, and Dr. Georg Pingen) to conduct a preliminary assessment of needs.
The Union engineering program collaborated with the Union University GO Trip program and the Office of University Ministries in the effort. Union University Spring Break GO Trip teams have been ministering at Orphanage Emmanuel for nearly twenty years, but this is the first time an academic department has partnered with the trip to provide discipline-specific assistance.
