Post 01019E : SOLAR REFRIGERATOR

POST 01019E : SOLAR REFRIGERATOR 2 December 2006 ____________________________________ Last May, Carib Nelson gave an update on a new solar refrigerator (Post 00921E). Today, Rajendra Shende (mailto:[email protected]) from UNEP in France, shares a news item on the same topic. He played a major role in this initiative. ____________________________________ Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, the President of India has become first citizen in the world to buy " Solar vaccine cooler" that uses innovative technology , so much needed in rural and remote areas of the developing countries. The units bought by the President will be utilized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan's medical clinic. The units are already installed and are working as per norms. The President , by buying these units, wanted to popularize this much needed technology and also bring to the attention how solar power could be used to solve health and poverty issues by using clean energy and environmentally sound practices like Ozone friendly and climate friendly refrigerants, no lead batteries, use of direct current motors. The fact that cost is already 50% of the similar vaccine cooler that exists today, emphasizes that environment and economics is on the same side of the game. The partnership approach to develop a truly 'people's technology' strengthens the concept of the Johannesburg Summit to implement the plan towards sustainable development. UNEP had the opportunity to facilitate this initiative, in the form of partnership between UNEP, WHO, UNICEF, GTZ, Greenpeace, PATH and Danish Technical Institute along with two private sector enterprises. The technology developed will be in public domain. I recently, on 1st November, coordinated the event to hand over these units at the Rashtrapati Bhavan -New Delhi in presence of the President and all the partners of the initiative . The eminent personalities that attended the event were DED of UNEP , Secretary -Ministry of New and renewable Energy, Government of India , member of Planning Commission of India , and representatives of WHO, UNICEF, Greenpeace , GTZ and others. 1. Please watch the video clip of CNN of the function at : http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/25273/solar-chill-to-empower-rural-india.html 2. Please also see major news release -among many others- that appeared in number of news papers : http://article.wn.com/view/2006/10/30/Kalam_backs_new_solarpowered_fridge/ Best regards, Rajendra Shende, Chief OzonAction, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Paris, France ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________