Nektarios Moraitis, SEE
Education: HND in Industrial Design and Production (Greece), BEng(Hons) Control Engineering (University of Greenwich, London), MSc Sustainable Energy Engineering (KTH, Stockholm).
Profession: Energy Consultant.
Family: Son of a big family back in Greece.
Interests: Music, cooking, travelling, mountaineering, snowboarding and almost anything related to energy and the environment.
Role model: Every single person on this earth who believes in themselves and their potential.
Motto: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, Mahatma Gandhi.
Nektarios' ambition is to help to make a better environment and to help the people living in it. He is currently working with a project called Light4Life helping a remote rural village (Dhawa in Nepal) to make their school building into a self-sustaining educational, cultural and commercial resource.
Light4Life (L4L) is a collaboration between the ENVIRON Foundation and Learning Planet, a recently-established UK non profit organisation. The aim of the project is to improve the lives and opportunities of hundreds of families, protect habitat and health, reduce poverty and provide a model for replication throughout the region.
L4L is a pilot project using clean, sustainable energy to transform a remote rural school building into a self-sustaining educational, cultural and commercial resource. It will help Dhawa to access education, training, renewable energy and (micro) finance. The school building will generate its own income for systems maintenance by charging a small fee to provide power and telecommunication services.
Schools are the essential place for the adults of tomorrow to help them adopt a sustainable approach towards the environment and how we use the earth's resources.
If there is a high quality school in the village, this will convince more parents to allow their children (mostly girls) to attend school. There are around 700 school-age children in Dhawa. Currently around 500 attend the village school, ages varying from 5 to 16, while their parents keep the remaining 200 at home. Most Dhawans are small farmers with little income other than from subsistence farming.
Light4Life will transform villagers' earning potential as adults can also learn to read and write, gain new vocational skills, basic IT, and access new commercial and communal resources. The Head Teacher is determined to improve facilities (thus L4L) to include high school level education for 16-18 yrs old students who currently have to walk for two hours to reach such a school. Schools are vital for the adults of tomorrow in order to help them adopt a sustainable approach towards the environment and how the earth's resources are used.
"I was interested in discovering something different"
"After graduation, I decided to follow a career in sustainable energy, feeling that this would satisfy my ambition to help to make a better environment and to help the people living in it.
When Nektarios applied to KTH, he was interested in discovering something different. Something that would spark his imagination and creativity, and something he could be passionate about.
"I researched many universities and courses, mainly within Europe, until I heard about KTH. In addition to KTH showing high international standards, masters programmes in Sweden were then free of charge, something that is in line with my ethics concerning free education for all, so there was no doubt this was the best option for me. The day I heard I has been accepted for my first-choice M.Sc. programme, I danced on the kitchen table in front of my amazed flat mates!
The people he met at KTH helped him to grow
Nektarios enjoyed his year in Sweden meeting a lot of interesting people who helped him to grow as a person, and he is still fond of the word “lagom” that Swedes use a lot.
"The word 'lagom' is accurate, and without an exact English translation, I consider it something like 'less is more' which I largely believe in. Only the long winter nights caused some discomfort, however they helped me to study too."
"I spent a fabulous year (2006-2007) in Sweden. I had the chance to meet great people inside and outside of the university. Studying on an international course, I met people from all around the world, bright people from different backgrounds and of different nationalities. Exchanging ideas and working together with such classmates was also an important learning experience, invaluable to develop my character and perceptions."
Be the change you wish to see in the world
As a person he is excited by anything new and innovative. He sees life as an adventure, as an opportunity to take on new challenges or do things he never thought he could. And he is living by his motto "Be the change you wish to see in the world".
"I like to be well informed on the latest technological advances and how these can help humanity to overcome problems and improve people's lives. My studies at KTH equipped me with a strong basis to move on and achieve the goals I have set. Now I am employed by a multinational environmental consultancy in London within the Carbon and Energy Management Division, helping businesses and local authorities to reduce their energy and carbon footprints."
"Sizing the system was a study itself"
Since the inception of the project L4L in September 2009, Nektarios has been the Technical Manager and acted as the "link" between Learning Planet and the ENVIRON Foundation and the many people taking part in the project.
"Sizing the system was a study in itself. Being thousands of kilometres away from the site, precise calculations had to be performed in order to build a reliable solar system for the given application. From February 2010 the action moved to Nepal and between May and July the solar installations were completed. Currently, the library has just been finished and the IT room and telecommunications system is underway. Hopefully, and without delays caused by severe weather and such, the aim is that the project will be completed by late October 2010. Altogether around 600 people are involved, but if we include all the volunteer villagers that makes it around thousand!"
L4L is an ongoing task. Following the implementation period, the effectiveness of the project will be monitored in the long term in four different areas: technical performance, building productivity, self sufficiency and economic and environmental benefits for the entire community.
"Working in such a remote location is not an easy task"
There is currently no electricity supply in the village. Plans for expansion of the electricity grid do exist but in such environments installation is not an easy task.
"Even when electricity does arrive in the village, it will be available only for few hours per day (load shedding). Sometimes similar problems also occur in the capital Kathmandu. Today, the few households that can afford it have small solar panels on their roofs to cover power demands for lighting only. Cooking is still on firewood with the exception of very few cases where they use small gas stoves."
Working in such a remote location is not an easy task. One of the greatest challenges was how to transport all the equipment to the site. With only a primitive muddy road available, it took two days to deliver the panels and all the solar equipment to the site.
"Travelling with the equipment on top of the four wheel drive truck was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Another challenge was how to connect the second, newly-constructed building, almost 250m uphill, to the main building where the solar equipment was installed. Using 20 wooden poles collected from the jungle, raised in two meter deep holes in the terraced corn and rice fields, both buildings were connected with a thick armoured cable. Other challenges, included information getting lost in translation with the local engineers and technicians, very hot weather just before the monsoons as well as lack of clean drinking water but we managed to overcome all of them mostly successfully!"
If anyone is interested in donating to the livelihood of the indigenous Himalayan community of Dhawa, please get in touch!
"Currently, further funding is required to install a solar water pump system and bring clean drinking water to the village, so if anyone is interested in donating to the livelihood of the indigenous Himalayan community of Dhawa, please get in touch! We have also had visits from head teachers from nearby villages inviting us to go and see their schools and discuss their needs. The telecommunications system will connect other schools in the region too, enabling them to access phone and Internet services at affordable prices."
"Seeing the happy school kids after the installations were completed was one of the most rewarding moments of my life. Our help and efforts can change lives in such remote areas! Engineers are in the centre of this change and often design the world we all live in. I am blessed to be one of those people who love their jobs and feel that work is pleasure, and vice versa."
Dhawa
Dhawa is a very remote village. There is no electricity and only a very basic rural road, taking between 2 and 6 hours to reach on foot depending on the season. The population of around 5 000 is scattered widely across the surrounding countryside. Dhawans are extremely warm and friendly to visitors, perhaps because they don't get too many! And you'll rarely see them not smiling. Their home is indeed a beautiful spot.
Information about the Environ Foundation
The ENVIRON Foundation is a subsidiary of ENVIRON Corporation. A good percentage of the Corporation’s worldwide profits go towards its Foundation which then allocates the funds to relevant projects that promote the protection of human health and a sustainable global environment, particularly related to the impact of chemicals and the use of the earth's resources. Projects include water treatment and recovery in Andean communities, public biogas and rainwater harvesting in Ethiopia, halting the fluorosis endemic in rural India, Light4Life, harnessing clean sustainable energy for health preservation and rural regeneration in the remote villages of Nepal as well as several projects in Europe and the US.
Interview: Annika Suhajek
