TWO-MONTH-INTERNSHIP AT PICOSOL CAMBODIA

TWO-MONTH-INTERNSHIP AT PICOSOL CAMBODIA

July 1st to September 29th, 2014

Certificate of Solar Installer Training

Experiences Got from Being Intern at PicoSol Cambodia

First, I would like to thank Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) who have warm cooperation with my university and give chance for students to be internship in solar companies and/or solar educational center in Cambodia. It is really important for Cambodian students to participate with companies or organization work on solar energy because these students can spread out the knowledge of this energy to other people such as their families, friends or neighbors and this kind or renewable energy is necessary for humanity.

For me, I get a lot of experiences and skills from this two-month-internship. I believe my future will be better because of this knowledge, and I would like to share what I have learnt to the next generation through teaching. Only two months but I have learnt a lot from it. Right now, I really understand about how to be a professional and ethical solar installer. I like this work since we can work in team and we can deal with each other even though we have some problems.

Below, I would like to show about what I have learnt from PicoSol Cambodia for two months.

 Technical of solar energy and SHS installation

System of Solar Tracker

The first day at PicoSol, my trainer Bunthan teach me about solar tour by guiding us to see how solar energy is used in the campus of PicoSol. There are many kinds of solar energy system such as the solar tracker, the solar street light, the solar water purifier, the solar mobile phone charger, the solar pump and the solar fridge. I really interested in this tour because I have never seen these system before; I have learnt only theory at university in renewable energy course.

Every Thursday in the first month at Picosol I got training about solar energy and solar home system (SHS). The lesson focusing on how to become a professional and ethical solar installer; I am not only taught about solar installation but I am also taught about attitude and preparation with the customer before installation. For example, I learn how to deal with customers whenever they are not so understand about warrantee or contraction. They also assigned me the problems related to power and energy after each lesson; therefore, I think it is very important for me because I can combine what I have learn at school to calculate power and energy with the real system. The first time for me on the roof is a bit scare, I can do it until the whole system was completed however. I got lots of knowledge after five days of training both with theory and installation.

Workshop

PicoSol Cambodia is an educational center focusing on raising awareness Cambodian people about solar energy; therefore, PicoSol sometimes do workshop for students in primary school in rural areas. When we were at PicoSol, we discuss about this workshop as well. We suggest to have workshop for high school students because we think that those students are easy to understand and are able to share provided information to their families and people in their community. After this discussion, PicoSol introduce me to create the posters for workshop in high school related to solar energy in Cambodia. Consequently, I have done these posters, three posters, and we together went to Kampong Speu province on 25^th July 2014 in order to do the workshop at primary school and high school. 

For me, I am responsible for the workshop in high school because I have designed the posters and searched supported document from the internet in English version and translated it to Khmer language for the whole part of posters. On that day, it seems to be a bit nervous for me because I never do the presentation in any workshops; it is the first time for me to stand in front of forty students in a class consisting two teachers as well. However, I can do the presentation well after I become adapted to this circumstance, and I also get admiration from team manager and everyone in the team. I cannot accomplished it if I work it alone, so I really thank to all members in team who always guide me and encourage me to complete this task.

Creating Questionnaire and Doing Survey
Beside solar installation, we were also assigned to create questionnaires for solar company in Cambodia. We create these questions for asking people nearby battery charging station using solar energy about advantages of solar energy in Prek Khmeng village, Lvea Em district, Kandal province. We had interviewed villagers just only eleven families nearby the battery charging station; consequently, we were able to generalize that people in that area like to use this charging station because of some reasons. Firstly, cost of charging is the main factor that they decide not to take their batteries to diesel charging station. They spend only 1000 riels to 1500 riels for each charging in station using solar energy that is cheaper than charging at other places, 1500 riels to 2000 riels. Most villagers understand about the benefits of solar charging station and disadvantages of diesel machine generator, “our battery cannot stay longer if we charge it with diesel machine, and diesel machine causes air pollution and sound pollution” villagers said. All the people provide the same answers and some are similar. The noticeable is that villagers suggest to have more solar battery charging station in that area and in the whole Cambodian as well.

On the day when we visited battery charging station, we not only interviewed the users, but we also interviewed the owner of the station in order to know how this station created and worked. I looked around this station carefully because I had responsibility to design the new sample of battery charging station by using ten solar panels at PicoSol Cambodia campus. Until the last week of internship I have finished the designing of new charging station, but did not make exact plan to build this system yet. I am not professional with design; however, I can make this sample attractive and acceptable by using only Microsoft Word. I calculated the number of equipment and materials needed for installing this system.

Using Google Form
While we were creating questionnaire for battery charging station project, we are also create others for other objective, solar energy in Cambodia. After we finished creating these questions we decide to use Google Form instead of calling directly to companies because we think that the data get from Google Form is always accurate and easy to analyze. In this survey, all companies get the email from PicoSol and they are able to fill their answer for each question by following provided link via Gmail. Twenty companies were received the link, but only four companies completed this link since some others they do not have time to answers and others prefer calling by phone. In summary, we can get only four completed answer.

Maintenance
At PicoSol, checking list is always done every Monday to know if all equipment, furniture or appliances work well or not. We call it maintenance, and I got knowledge from this. Although it seems to be unrelated with solar technology, but I think that it is a great chance for me to experience these works following advises from the trainer and team manager. For example, if I found some appliances do not work well, I have to report to my trainer and he guide me to fix those. I had fixed fans, replace the lamp, and reconnect network wire from solar tracker to the campus with cooperation with my friend as well. Consequently, I strongly believe that I can use this useful experience to repair my own domestic appliances in the future.

Solar Bottle
Solar bottle is an assignment related to using sunlight in the simple way for the poor people in slum area. People in Philippine called “A liter of light”. Solar bottle was created in Philippine for using in the day time because some slum areas do not have enough light for using even during the day time. For this cause, people cannot stay in their house, they have to find somewhere bright, so they go outside that is the difficulty. After solar bottle was built and installed, those people is no longer outside their home since now they have light, light from the sun without paying money.

Solar bottle is a bottle containing water and bleach and was installed on the roof (one part outside the roof and another inside the roof). When sunlight reach the bottle, the bottle spread out brightness light in the house. This system was installed carefully in order to prevent the rain come in to the household or booming of the bottle cap when the water inside the bottle absorb high temperature from the sun.

According to videos on Yutube, director of PicoSol assigned us to build a sample dark house for testing solar bottle and finally it has been done 100%. The differences between this experiments is that we tested with three bottle of water: first bottle only water, second bottle contains water and salt, and the last bottle contains the mixture of water and chlorine. Consequently, the last bottle provide the brightest of light. We also create basic document of “How to build and install solar bottle” for PicoSol Cambodia. This was created to share to the poor people in Cambodia who have the same trouble of Philippines’.

Power Calculation
The purpose of power calculation is to make sure that the energy getting from solar panels is enough for using in Campus. First, we measure the power of all appliances in campus and total it, then measure the power produced by solar panels. Finally, we make balance both power to know how much energy rest for installing the new fans.

Campus
In the last two weeks at PicoSol we together try to decorate inside and outside of the campus. Inside the building, we pain the new color, change the position of some materials and/or furniture, and add the new pictures and photos. Outside the building, we make direction sign and cut grasses that does not color the campus. This is our grateful to PicoSol for selecting us to work for their organization and sharing us plenty of knowledge.

Editing Movie
Editing movie is my interests that why I think it is good for me to make by using the video from interview villagers. It is interesting since I can go outside to interview and capture the picture diectly, and then make it become attractive movie for uploading in youtube to show the world about solar energy in Cambodia. In this assignment, all interns must make a movie that we called one-minute movie. 

Click here to see my edited video related to solar energy in Cambodia.

Time Management

The last two other skills that I learn from PicoSol is time management and using good power point. I also get certification of participation with time management training, one-day training. After I participated in this course I can manage the time well, not only at workplace but also in daily life.

In conclusion, thank for your help and I hope the next generation students in Cambodia, especially students at Department of physics, RUPP, will have a great opportunity like me to be internship or any position related to renewable energy in Cambodia or in foreign country as well. 

Final Day of Internship
At the end of internship, we have a delicious lunch together. I do not know about my feeling at that time because I really don't want to leave PicoSol. However, it is the time to leave since my internship period is finished and I have to start new semester at RUPP. No matter how, I still remember PicoSol and everyone there and wanna be there at sometimes suitable. I love you all.

I LOVE PICOSL CAMBODIA