San Francisco-based blueEnergy provides sustainable energy services to isolated communities in Nicaragua. Mathias Craig, executive director and chairman of the board of the nonprofit corporation, was on-hand last year to receive the prestigious Accenture Economic Development Award at the Tech Museum Awards, presented by Aplied Materials. He spoke to PodTech for this video podcast, live at the Tech Museum.

blueEnergy brings electrification to remote regions by building power systems that convert energy from wind turbines to battery power. Their efforts have brought lighting and refrigeration to towns along the Caribbean coast on Nicaragua, where less than 20 percent of the population has ready access to electricity. Their systems are built from scratch, relying on local labor that ends up providing training of local laborers, increasing skills and local economic opportunities, while providing a critical necessity for continued economic development through electricity.

Long before his efforts in Nicaragua earned him and his growing company high-profile status as one of CNN’s “Community Crusader” 2007 Heroes, Craig and his brother were aware of the need for electricity in rural Nicaragua. Their mother, a linguist, spent time in the remote region, where only about 20 percent of the settlements have electrification.

Check out video of the award presentation at the Tech Awards, as well as links to lots of coverage of blueEnergy’s efforts. And of course, check out Mathias’s blog, on socialedge.org.

Full coverage of the 2007 Tech Awards

Tags: blueEnergy, Mathias Craig, Nicaragua, socialedge.org, sustainable energy, Tech Awards, Tech Museum Awards
 
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