When Florida’s highways started jamming up with people
evacuating their homes as hurricanes Charley and Frances roared
toward the state, Florida Solar Energy Center's (FSEC) Bill Young
was driving in the other direction.
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Bill Young |
It had been 12 years since he first took some FSEC PV training
equipment down to Homestead to help in the recovery efforts after
Hurricane Andrew, and the monstrous storms approaching the state
signaled that it was time for him to go into action again.
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A solar thermal panel survives Hurricane
Charley. (Photo credit: Bill Young) |
Young, a Senior Research Engineer in FSEC’s Photovoltaics(PV)
and Distributed Generation Division, has been working on “Disaster
Resistant Buildings” for the past few years with groups
like the non-profit Institute of Business Home Safety in Tampa,
conducting training programs on the use of photovoltaics and solar
energy in disaster response, recovery and mitigation. Several
of the groups he works with are involved in designing and building
homes and businesses that can withstand the forces of a disaster
like a major hurricane. Bill adds the energy component. “Solar
systems can make these buildings functional,” he says. “Strong
building codes are helping ensure that buildings remain standing
after getting hit by hurricane-force winds. The solar systems
ensure that the residents can get back into their homes and not
have to wait days or even weeks for power.”
On August 16, just days after the hurricane blasted Florida’s
west coast, Young joined disaster damage assessment teams in the
Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte areas who were evaluating wind
damage to roof materials and inspecting design performance of
buildings. He spent six days climbing on roofs and trudging through
buildings to see how well they held up during the storm. “The
team I was with looked at homes with shingle roofs, and we found
that about half of the solar systems that had been in place were
still there and working,” he noted. “It was clear
that the stronger building codes in recent years made a big difference
in keeping so many buildings in good shape.”
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Solar pool heating panels survive a hurricane.
(Photo credit: Bill Young) |
He brought along his solar power trailer that was built for the
frequent disaster-relief training programs he conducts. The trailer
contains 600 watts of PV power, a 2000-watt inverter and 1500
watts of battery storage. “I drove around looking for a
disaster medical assistance team working with FEMA, and found
one in a tent outside of Fawcett Memorial Hospital. Actually,
I heard the sound of their petroleum-fueled generator before I
even saw them. I’ve learned from medical teams at other
disasters that there’s a real psychological trauma at disasters
caused by the noise and smell of diesel generators, and the doctors
were very glad to see my quiet PV equipment. We set it up at their
medical tent and it worked beautifully. The trailer gave them
the power they needed for their tent and allowed them to treat
injuries to relieve the burden on the hospital staff and facilities.”
He also worked with other disaster relief teams looking at the
use of other roof-mounted solar equipment like solar water heaters
and pool heaters and how they could continue to operate efficiently
while power was otherwise unavailable.
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Noisy generators power Emergency Medical
Operations' facilities. (Photo credit:
Bill Young) |
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FSEC's mobile PV trailer quietly powers
medical tent. (Photo credit: Bill
Young) |
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A brief trip back to FSEC gave him the chance to replenish his
supplies and then spend a few days in Colorado giving a paper
on the use of photovoltaics in disaster and energy security applications
(click here for a copy of
the paper) and conduct a workshop on solar energy use in disasters
at the World Renewable Energy Congress. He got home just after
Hurricane Frances hit the Central Florida area and again joined
in disaster relief efforts. Bill worked with the local Emergency
Operations Center in Rockledge and helped with ham radio operations
and communications.
Young has become a national figure in the solar energy field
in the area of disaster relief since his work after the devastating
Hurricane Andrew in South Florida 12 years ago. Back then, he
had been working with the Florida Department of Transportation
on a contract to use solar energy in their operations to power
call boxes, message signs, traffic signals and other equipment.
“I think there were about 1800 traffic signals down after
that hurricane hit,” he explained, “and since I had
been working on using PV to power signals, I went right down to
the area and spent two weeks there with the two FSEC training
kits we had used in our classes. They had the typical components
needed for a stand-alone system – PV panels, inverters,
lights and hardware – and they helped get a lot of traffic
lights operating again. A week later, Jim Dunlop and some other
FSEC staff members came down also and brought a lot of PV equipment
that they took off of our building and even test stands. We used
it to supply power to four medical clinics that were being set
up in the area."
Since his volunteer efforts after Hurricane Andrew, Young has
been giving more than a dozen workshops and presentations every
year on the use of solar energy in disaster relief efforts. You
can find out more about his activities at http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/disaster/index.htm.
“I think the bottom line of this work,” he notes,
“is that people must be prepared for disasters and not just
wait until they happen to figure out what to do. It’s one
thing for the government to spend millions of dollars after a
hurricane or other disaster to help fix everything up and get
life back to normal, but it’s a whole lot more desirable
to plan for problems and use systems like photovoltaics to make
sure that you have power when the utility isn’t able to
provide it. I saw this in my own neighborhood after Hurricane
Frances when I drove around the area and noticed many people sitting
on lawn chairs in their driveways. Their homes were still standing
and looked to be in pretty good shape, but they still had not
gotten their power back. Photovoltaics could have been providing
power, and solar thermal systems could have let them shower and
enjoy indoor hot water.”
Bill Young's paper on photovoltaics in
disaster and energy security applications:
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/news/newsletters/echron/archives/2004/Q4/Young-disaster-WREC.pdf
One of Bill Young’s presentations used in his Disaster Resistant Buildings workshops:
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/news/newsletters/echron/archives/2004/Q4Disaster_Resistant_Bldgs_ppt.pdf/
For more information on photovoltaics, visit: http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/solar_electricity/index.htm