Capstone Design Projects as Foundation for a Solar Community

This paper presents a collaboration between the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) and a community to establish Puerto Rico's first solar community in the southern part of the Island. This community-university collaboration is leveraging on well-organized community leadership and their efforts towards community self-reliance. Electrical engineering capstone design projects have been used as the cornerstone for the technological aspects of the collaboration. The community had initially planned to expand its community center building to provide more services to residents. Their initial idea of including a solar power system was expanded with help from UPRM researchers, to a solar community initiative. Using the community center as the spearhead for the initiative, and going beyond technology, the solar community project combines citizen empowerment, technology, social and environmental justice to yield sustainable energy and energy self-reliance.