Engineering Solar to Power a Village in Sierra Leone

Engineers Without Borders has been helping to bring power to a small village in Sierra Leone, Africa using solar with battery backup. Over the last 14 years, Engineers Without Borders – Lehigh Professional Chapter (EWB-LVP) has designed and implemented projects in four sites in the village of Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone, including for a secondary school, hospital, a school for disabled/handicapped individuals and a trade school. The latest project included an 8.8 KW PV array, 6 KW inverter/charger and a 5.3 kWh Li-Ion battery. With no electric utility in the village, the solar and batteries displace a diesel generator. In this presentation, learn a little about the culture of Sierra Leone and more about how EWB-LV has been engineering solar solutions to make significant contributions to education and health around the world.

This event was not recorded but a copy of the presentation is available below.

James Butt

James Butt earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and an MSEE from Lehigh University.  He worked as a Senior Engineer for Ford Motor Company designing advanced and production ignition systems. After receiving his Master’s degree, he worked at Lehigh University as a Research Engineer in the Energy Research Center researching alternate energy and energy conservation.  Jim also held an Adjunct Lecturer position in Lehigh’s Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. Jim became Chief Engineer at Bitronics, Inc where he was responsible for the design of advanced instrumentation used in electric utilities. Most recently he was a Design Engineer at HindlePower, Inc. where he designed industrial battery chargers for electric utilities. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society, a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society. He was a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Michigan. Jim has been a member of Engineers Without Borders – Lehigh Valley Professional Chapter (EWB-LVP) for over thirteen years and has been Chapter Treasurer for the past eight years. Jim has been actively involved in many of the EWB-LVP projects in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He traveled to Sierra Leone in 2012 and plans to travel to there again in early 2025. Jim has been an active contributor to MAREA over many years.