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Narrator: This Is The Egypt Familiar To Most People. Cairo Is A Big, Busy

Thomas Culhane has been helping lower-income Egyptians in Cairo build solar-powered water heaters using recycled materials found on rooftops, where residents store trash they consider valuable for future use. The water heaters take advantage of Egypt's plentiful sunshine, heating water in metal tubes that circulates to a tank. While the solar heaters provide access to hot water and improve lives, dust from the nearby desert coats the solar panels, requiring regular cleaning to maintain efficiency; Culhane hopes educating residents on the need to wipe down panels will lead to wider solar adoption in Cairo.

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159 views2 pages

Narrator: This Is The Egypt Familiar To Most People. Cairo Is A Big, Busy

Thomas Culhane has been helping lower-income Egyptians in Cairo build solar-powered water heaters using recycled materials found on rooftops, where residents store trash they consider valuable for future use. The water heaters take advantage of Egypt's plentiful sunshine, heating water in metal tubes that circulates to a tank. While the solar heaters provide access to hot water and improve lives, dust from the nearby desert coats the solar panels, requiring regular cleaning to maintain efficiency; Culhane hopes educating residents on the need to wipe down panels will lead to wider solar adoption in Cairo.

Uploaded by

Thúy Phương
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unit 2 Video: Solar Solutions

Narrator: This is the Egypt familiar to most people. Cairo is a big, busy
city. But there’s a whole other world up here, high on the city’s rooftops.
Many Egyptians use the space on rooftops for water tanks, satellite
dishes, and even livestock. The garbage piled everywhere is considered
valuable because it’s often recycled and reused. Cairo has been “going
green” long before it became fashionable. That’s why National
Geographic Emerging Explorer Thomas Taha Culhane’s program has
been so special. He’s been helping lower-income Egyptians build solar-
powered water heaters—partly out of recycled trash—and putting them
on their rooftops.
Thomas Culhane: People will come to this community, and they’ll look
on the rooftops and they’ll say why is there so much trash on the roofs,
but if you talk to the homeowners they’ll say, “What trash? I’m saving
this for the future when I can figure out a good way to use it.” So there is
no trash. And that is, I think, the message that inner-city Cairo, and the
informal communities of Cairo, have for the world. Forget this idea that
there is garbage. One man’s garbage is another’s gold mine.
Narrator: The water heaters take advantage of Egypt’s great national
resource— abundant sunshine. When the system is placed just right …
Culhane: Oh, you’re good. You are good. You know what you’re at?
39.9 degrees. Whoa. Whoa.
Narrator: Solar panels heat up water that circulates through metal tubes,
eventually filling a tank with extremely hot water.
Culhane: This is a hand-made solar hot water system, and it’s made out
of local community materials, recycled materials, and even some
garbage. And we put it together as cheaply as possible to demonstrate
that anybody can make a solar hot water system; that renewable energy
is not some exotic technology; that it can be made from found materials
and it works.
Narrator: The solar heaters allow urban dwellers access to a plentiful
supply of hot water. The heaters improve the quality of life and
sanitation, and they cut down on potential energy costs. Culhane says the
only problem is the dust from the nearby desert that coats the city and
the panels.
Culhane: Solar works tremendously well if there’s sun. Cairo has sun.
But it also has dust. Until people appreciate that, they won’t come up
and just do the simple thing of just wiping the dust away. So really it’s a
matter of just a few seconds to wipe it down and then the system is
functioning again. But because people don’t do this, they will say,
“Solar does not work in Cairo.” And what we have to do is get them to
be as aware of the need to just dust these as they are dusting their
kitchen table. Once they accept that, solar is a no-brainer here. It’s an
easy thing to do
Narrator: Culhane hopes the water heater project will lead to other
innovations using recycled materials. As the saying goes, one man’s
garbage is another man’s treasure.

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