Solar Hybrid Pumping Solution

Engineers Without Borders Brings Hope in GuatemalaThe 115 families living in La Fe community of Solola department in southwestern Guatemala — a cloud forest settlement at 8,700 feet — toiled for years under a very limiting agreement with nearby villages that gave them access to potable water only one day a week. The La Fe leaders reached out for help from the Milwaukee professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA. Its engineers designed and installed a system — it connects to a spring — involving conduction lines, suction tank and pumping, distribution/storage tank, and distribution lines to 120 tap stands within the community. The project vastly improved the lives of about 600 residents. It makes for quite a tale. A commercial pilot and Georgia Tech graduate (B.S., aeronautical engineering), Larry retired after 35-plus years in the telecommunications industry, where he specialized in project management for AC/DC power systems, generators, switch gear and UPS systems. He received the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Conservation Design award in 1984. He has used his expertise to assist communities in 20 developing countries, with missions to refugee camps in Nepal, Uganda, and Ethiopia; evaluating hospital electrical systems in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis; and repairing water wells in Ethiopia during a drought. Larry won EWB’s Founder Award in 2014 and currently serves on the organization’s standing content committees for energy and water.