AHEAD ENERGY CORPORATION

Peace Nursery and Primary School, located in Makindye, Uganda, is a private urban school that educates about 200 students - orphans and the extremely poor.&nbsp; The mission of the school is to educate students of limited resources through balanced academic and social pursuits, thereby nurturing reverent, hardworking, and disciplined individuals. The purpose of the partnership between Peace Nursery and Primary School and AHEAD Energy is to improve the energy systems at the School, thereby increasing opportunities for learning, improving the health of students and staff, relieving the drudgery that lack of access to energy entails, and setting Peace School on a more secure financial footing.&nbsp; Peace School will serve as a model of how combining a number of energy systems can meet basic human needs in developing countries.<br />

Thanks to a grant from the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation, children and their caretakers at Kagando Rural Development Center (KARUDEC) will lead healthier, more comfortable lives.&nbsp; The grant to AHEAD Energy, awarded in March 2010, provides funds to build efficient cookstoves and water heaters at three of KARUDEC&#8217;s operations: the New Mother Care Home, Kagando Primary School, and Kagando Vocational School.&nbsp; The establishments serve over 750 children a year.<br /><br />Institutional Rocket stoves will be built at the schools where cooks prepare meals for students.&nbsp; Smaller, family-size Rocket stoves will be built at the New Mother Care Home where women cook for themselves and their infants.&nbsp; The stoves will replace the three-stone fires now being used to cook food and heat water. &nbsp;<br /><br />Water heating tanks will be inserted into the chimneys of the institutional stoves so that water is heated as food is cooking.<br /><br />Rocket Stove Technology<br />Rocket Stoves are a technology created specifically for developing countries.&nbsp; The stoves are constructed out of local materials on the spot where they will be used.&nbsp; Because combustion is controlled and cooking pots fit down into the stove, less fuel is needed, food cooks faster, and little smoke is produced.&nbsp; Rocket stoves can be used with any combustible material: wood, charcoal, crop residues, and gas.&nbsp; Plans are underway to construct biodigesters at KARUDEC so that the institutional stoves will operate on biogas.<br /><br />Substituting Rocket stoves for three-stone stoves provides health, economic and environmental benefits.&nbsp; The health hazards of cooking over open fires using solid fuels are well-documented.&nbsp; According to the World Health Organization, cooking over open fires emits pollutants that cause 2 million deaths a year; half of them children.&nbsp; This pollution kills more people than malaria or tuberculosis.&nbsp; Inhaling indoor smoke doubles the risk of pneumonia and other acute infections of the lower respiratory tract among children under five years of age. &nbsp;<br /><br />Open fire cooking is highly inefficient.&nbsp; A large fraction of potential energy is lost because of incomplete combustion.&nbsp; Cook stove soot or &#8220;black carbon,&#8221; is now recognized as a significant contributor to anthropogenic climate change. <br /><br />Because Rocket stoves use considerably less fuel, they are cost effective in places where fuel is being purchased, such as KARUDEC.&nbsp; By cooking food faster, they free up time that can be devoted to gainful pursuits. &nbsp;<br /><br />Co-generated hot water<br />Because it is very time and energy consumptive to heat water over open fires, the 1500 residents and at KARUDEC currently use cold water for bathing, laundry, and cleaning. While hot water is not essential for any of these activities, it can make all of them more palatable and effective.&nbsp; Having hot water readily available will also facilitate the preparation of food and drink.&nbsp; At Circle of Peace School in Makindye, Uganda where AHEAD Energy recently provided a hot water system, the Headmaster reported that children are now lining up to take their baths rather than refusing to bathe.<br /><br />About Kagando Rural Development Center<br />Kagando Rural Development Center has been serving people in the Kasese District of Uganda for 44 years.&nbsp; Begun in 1965 as a leprosarium run by the Africa Inland Mission, the enterprise was renamed the Kagando Rural Development Center (KARUDEC) in 1985, and operates today as a development mission of the South Rwenzori Diocese, Church of Uganda.&nbsp; The enterprise has steadily expanded so that it now encompasses a 250-bed hospital, a Nursing and Midwifery School with close to 200 students, a primary school with over 600 students, a Mother Care Home, a Vocational School, and a micro-finance bank.&nbsp; At the KARUDEC complex there is a grain mill, machine shop, shoe shop, guest quarters for the many interns and visitors that come to offer their services, and living quarters for the permanent staff and their families that number approximately 1500.&nbsp; KARUDEC is the staging area for significant development projects in the Kasese District; projects aimed at improving health, promoting agriculture, and providing clean water and sanitation.<br /><br />Partnership with East Africa Energy Technology Development Network (EAETDN)<br />AHEAD is partnering with the East Africa Energy Technology Development Network (EAETDN) to build the stoves and water tanks.&nbsp; EAETDN-Uganda is a registered nongovernmental organization that has backing from international as well as national entities.&nbsp; Established in 1998, EAETDN aims to increase energy access for households and commercial development.&nbsp; The organization is closely linked to the Center for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) at Makerere University, where there are a number of stove experts.&nbsp; <br />

An irrigation system is operational and six wind turbines will soon be providing electricity for a primary school in Kenya thanks to AHEAD Energy.<br /><br />Chazon Children&#8217;s Center was begun in 2007 by Lucy and Samuel Njenga in response to the need to provide schooling to orphans and other children displaced by tribal violence in Kenya.&nbsp; The Njengas, both ordained ministers, sold much of their own property to purchase land on which to build a school.&nbsp; To date four classrooms and a cooking shed have been built.&nbsp; Each classroom is divided so that eight grades can be accommodated.&nbsp; Currently, the school has no electricity and cooking is done over a three-stone fire.&nbsp; The school was also looking for a way to irrigate crops being grown on the school property.<br /><br />Psychiatric nurse practitioner Dr. Virginia Duffy, discovered the school on a trip to Kenya in 2009, and made a commitment to assist the school with its needs.&nbsp; Dr. Duffy approached Ahead Energy, which quickly responded with information about the availability of KickStart pumps and Jetpro wind turbines.&nbsp; With funding provided by Dr. Duffy, a pump was purchased and is now in operation at the Center.&nbsp; Since the Center is on a hill were there are constant breezes, AHEAD secured a donation from Jetpro Technology (a Taiwanese renewable energy manufacturer) who also paid to have the turbines shipped to Kenya.&nbsp; These are due to arrive at the school in early April.&nbsp; In addition, AHEAD arranged for an electrician with experience installing renewable energy equipment to visit the school and provide an estimate of the cost to wire the buildings and install LED lights. &nbsp;<br /><br />The electricity will supply lighting for the school, which is often needed during the rainy season to see indoors and also critical for security at night. It will also allow for the use of computers for student and teacher learning, improved record keeping, and communications with various agencies and others. A recent website (chazonafrica.org ) and blog (http://chazonchildrencentre.blogspot.com) also need to be updated regularly. <br /><br />The school is pleased that electricity will allow them to use rechargeable lights (also donated by JetPro) that the children will take home to illuminate their night time studies. Virtually none of their homes have electricity. An electric water pump may be installed to supplement manual pumping during the dry season. At this time CCC is attempting to grow most of the food for the current 181 (and ever increasing) children. Buying food for all of these children is not financially possible and for some this is the only food they receive each day.

Kathituni Boarding Primary School, located in Chuka, Kenya, is a co-ed public boarding school that has been in operation since 1977.&nbsp; Currently, it has 325 pupils in grades 4 to 8 (182 boys and 143 girls).&nbsp; About 98% of the students go on to secondary school.&nbsp; Great men and women holding senior positions in Kenya and abroad have studied at Kathituni. &nbsp;<br /><br />AHEAD staff made a site visit to the School in September 2009. Because of power rationing in the area, the School&#8217;s electric bills have been rising by 30% every month. Power outages are common. Lack of power affects their water supply since they use an electric pump to secure water from a spring at the bottom of a hill. Water heating for bathing is being done in 50 gallon drums over wood fires. Several energy technologies that AHEAD is implementing in other places appear appropriate at Kathituni as well: photovoltaics, biodigestion, and solar thermal hot water heating.<br /><br />Albert Njeru is the Head Teacher in charge of the school.&nbsp; He is assisted by 12 teachers and 10 other staff (cooks, bookkeeper, maintenance staff, etc.).&nbsp; A dozen volunteers from the community serve on the School&#8217;s Management Committee.<br /><br />The school is located on a large parcel of land.&nbsp; Besides a large classroom wing, there is an administration building, a dining hall, four dormitories, and a library.&nbsp; There is a computer lab in the administration building.<br /><br />Farming is conducted on part of the school property and the school also has some livestock: milk cows and milk goats, pigs and chickens.&nbsp; The students assist with some farm chores.&nbsp; The school also organizes many extracurricular activities for the students including singing, dancing, drumming, sports, and drama.

Since its founding at the University of Rochester in 1988, AHEAD Energy has benefited from the input of students, both graduate and undergraduate.&nbsp; This year the number of students working directly on AHEAD projects has taken a jump. &nbsp;<br /><br />Thus far, AHEAD has assigned five students to overseas volunteer opportunities in 2010.&nbsp; Two Chemical Engineering students, Suze Ninh and Samantha Ruiz, interned at Jetpro Technology headquarters in Kang City, Taiwan in January.&nbsp; Jetpro manufactures three types of energy-efficient products: wind turbines, water turbines, and climate control systems for buildings.&nbsp; Suze and Samantha were trained in how to assemble and install Jetpro&#8217;s unique shrouded turbine and also provided input into a new run-of-the river water turbine.&nbsp; AHEAD is recommending Jetpro systems to clients as the products are well-suited to the African context.&nbsp; The experience was made possible through support by the Office of the Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Jetpro, as well as AHEAD.<br /><br />As soon as classes are out in May, Elaina Stover, a UR Take-Five Scholar, will head to Circle of Peace School in Uganda where she will spend three weeks introducing a science curriculum she has developed on energy and sustainability.&nbsp; Dr. David Hursh, Associate Professor at the Warner Graduate School of Education, will accompany Elaina and assist her in conducting teacher training at the School.&nbsp; AHEAD staff have met regularly with Elaina and Dr. Hursh throughout the academic year as the curriculum and teacher training modules were developed. <br /><br />In June, Sarah Rosenstein will travel to Kagando Rural Development Center in Kasese, Uganda, to assist in setting up a computer lab at their new Vocational School. Sarah graduated from the University of Rochester in 2009 with a BS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.&nbsp; This year she is completing her MS in Electrical Engineering.&nbsp; Sarah elected to take on this volunteer assignment prior to beginning full-time employment with a firm in Boston.<br /><br />In July, undergraduate Alexander David will travel to Uganda to assist women&#8217;s cooperatives with marketing briquettes made from crop waste.&nbsp; David will be paired with Ajai Hari, a masters student at the Simon Graduate School of Business Administration.&nbsp; Ajai has a degree from the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences at University of Oklahoma and has worked as an engineer for firms in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.&nbsp; Alex is studying engineering, sustainability, and business at the University of Rochester and serves as a Eco-Rep for his dormitory. &#8220;This is an interesting and exciting opportunity,&#8221; says Alex. &#8220;After reading and hearing about the project it was impossible for me to not volunteer.&#8221; <br /><br />Having grown up in India, Ajai understand the challenges surrounding sustainability and the environment .&nbsp; &#8220;If there is any way I can help people become more sustainable and self-sufficient economically, then I feel like I&#8217;ve put my education to good use,&#8221; he says.<br /><br />AHEAD developed this assignment after receiving a request for help from East African Energy Technology Development Network (EAETDN).&nbsp; Both AHEAD Energy and EAETDN are members of the Global Village Energy Partnership.&nbsp; When AHEAD was engaged to help a school in Uganda to upgrade its energy systems, AHEAD began working with EAETDN to locate local resources and contractors.&nbsp; Since that initial project, AHEAD and EAETDN have regularly exchanged information and collaborated on other projects. &nbsp;<br /><br />Besides students working abroad, AHEAD has also benefited from the input of students on campus.&nbsp; Currently, Chemical Engineering undergrad David Wituszynski is doing research on efficient cook stoves and other technologies suitable for Africans at the lower rungs of the Energy Ladder.&nbsp; Laura Posner, a Chemical Engineering Senior and Xerox Fellow, has been doing innovative work on assessing issues of scale and infrastructure for transitions to alternative energy systems in developing countries.&nbsp; .MBA students Chen Zhang and Christina Dianingrum provided audit services to AHEAD, and Simon School students Sandip Bhatlawande and Shambavi Sivaramakrishnan are working with AHEAD on a marketing plan.&nbsp; Taylor Chartier and Lisa Tse have served as Work Study office assistants for Sr. Lecturer, Ben W. Ebenhack.&nbsp; They helped with applied research into sustainable and global energy systems.