About the Thailand Project
The collaboration with Engineers With Border was created to help a small community in Thailand create a storage system for food the families cooked during the day but were unable to store during the night. The Thailand Project was started to install a Solar Panel Shed that would create ice the community could use to store their food in ice chests during the night. Using an off-grid solar energy system, we can provide the community in Thailand with access to renewable energy while alleviating the issue of overnight food storage.
Building the Prototype in the Student Experimental Farm
We began this collaboration by building our first design in the Student Experimental Farm to test how the system would work. Starting with the rack, we welded several bars together to create an initial design as can be seen below.
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| The rack was welded together and primer was applied in this stage. |
After digging two holes that were about 3.5-4 ft deep, the rack was secured inside, painted green, and two solar panels were installed side by side.
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| The solar panels and rack have been secured in this stage. |
After the panels and rack were installed, the final two steps remaining were to build a shed around the rack to both provide further shading for the freezer and to protect the electrical system inside. The final product can be seen below.
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| Wilson shows off the two freezers the solar panel shed is able to power with two different systems. |
