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Media
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Technology Review, May/June 2008
blueEnergy [Co-]Founder Named CNN Hero for Nicaraguan Project
"When he was a boy in Eugene, OR, one of Mathias Craig's favorite Christmas gifts was the MIT course catalogue that linguistics professor Ken Hale sent each year. Craig's mother, Colette Grinevald Craig, had studied with Hale, and they remained close friends until his death in 2001. Craig would spend days carefully mapping out imaginary class schedules.
Years later, when Craig was an MIT graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, he again found himself leafing through the catalogue. One class particularly intrigued him--Entrepreneurship in the Developing World, which explored ways business ventures can improve the lives of impoverished people. Craig drew up a plan for building wind turbines to purify water and submitted it to the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition. "
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Social Innovation Conversations, April 19 2008
Bringing Electricity to the Marginalized
"Access to electricity is critical for modern economic and social development. Yet, in Nicaragua, half of the roughly 5 million inhabitants do not have access to this resource, which shuts them out of a host of technologies that promote education, public health, and economic development. In this conversation, Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director of the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, interviews Mathias Craig, founder of blueEnergy, a nonprofit organization that provides a low-cost, sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities in Nicaragua."
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Home Power Magazine, #123 February/March 2008
RE Independence In Nicaragua (article) | Home Power Magazine
"On the hills along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, hand-built wind turbines spin with the seaside winds, providing remote villages with clean electricity for lights, CB radios and small appliances. In these communities, where indigenous Mestizo and Creole people live in thatched-roofed huts, even a small amouint of clean electricity can have a huge impact on their quality of life."
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Innovations: Research and News from Berkeley Engineering, December 2007/January 2008
Engineering Grad Brings “Fiat Lux” to Nicaragua
"In remote villages along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, the seemingly simple act of switching on a light is anything but simple. It’s usually impossible. Mathias Craig (B.S.’01 CEE) wants to change that. Craig, 29, is cofounder of blueEnergy, a nonprofit organization that is harnessing the power of the wind to illuminate homes, schools and rural clinics in an impoverished region where nearly 80 percent of the population have no electricity."
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Science and Development Network, February 11 2008
Nicaragua: energía sostenible para comunidades rurales
"Gracias a un proyecto académico, alrededor de 1500 personas de comunidades rurales aisladas de Nicaragua se benefician del servicio de energía eléctrica a bajo costo, en un país donde casi la mitad de la población de cinco millones no tiene acceso a electricidad."
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International Information Programs, US Department of State, December 7, 2007
Rural Nicaraguan Areas Are Model for Electrification System
"For many who live in rural areas throughout the world, the basic technologies necessary for education, public health and economic development are not feasible because of a lack of electricity. But in Nicaragua, a U.S.-based nonprofit company, blueEnergy, is developing a model for low-cost, sustainable electrification of remote rural communities that can be replicated around the world."
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La Prensa, November 17, 2007 [in Spanish]
Clases de energía renovable en Bluefields
"Las autoridades del Instituto Nacional Tecnológico (Inatec) firmaron un convenio de cinco años con la firma Blue Energy, ya instalada en Bluefields, Región Autónoma Atlántico Sur (RAAS), para capacitar a los alumnos del Instituto Politécnico Cristóbal Colón (IPCC), adscrito al Inatec, en temas de energía eólica y solar."
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El Nuevo Diario, November 16, 2007 [in Spanish]
Certamen en busca del héroe común en todo el mundo: Nicaragua finalista en historias extraordinarias
"No se trata de un certamen de belleza ni del orgullo que provoca la victoria internacional de un pugilista nicaragüense, sino de héroes comunes, pero de logros extraordinarios. Este próximo 6 de diciembre, Nicaragua estará compitiendo en la etapa final del evento “Héroes de CNN: gente común, logros extraordinarios”, promovido por esa cadena estadounidense, que galardonará la historia más destacada de héroes anónimos de todo el mundo, que han entregado sus vidas a causas sociales y ambientales."
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blueEnergy wins the Economic Development Award at the 2007 Tech Awards.
Watch the video
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Wired, November 8, 2007
Do-Gooders Gather Tech Museum Awards
"The Tech Museum of Innovation handed out its annual tech awards here Wednesday to honor innovators who use technology to benefit humanity. This year's winning projects include a way to reduce the pollution caused by salmon farming, a wind-and-solar energy system, multilingual social networking, a prosthetic limb and low-cost medical tests."
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The Mercury News, November 8, 2007
Tech Museum awards: Laureates honored at annual event (article) | Video
"They came from around the world to receive their rewards. One organization offers inexpensive, make-it-yourself wind turbines in Nicaragua. A group of NASA workers creates science and math learning software for blind and seeing students. A Brazilian 24-hour free TV channel produces educational and cultural entertainment programs. Call them humanitarians with business plans."
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The Tech Museum Awards, November 7, 2007
THE TECH MUSEUM AWARDS: TECHNOLOGY BENEFITING HUMANITY HONORS FIVE GLOBAL INNOVATORS WITH $250,000
"Technology is changing the world and tonight in San Jose, some of the biggest and brightest stars in the industry were honored for their contributions to helping society address global challenges. The Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., awarded $250,000 at a black-tie gala to five technologists, educators, scientists and social entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve our world. The five $50,000 cash prize recipients hail from the United States, Chile, the United Kingdom, Canada and India, and have developed or adapted technology in creative ways to solve worldwide problems."
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LA PRENSA, October 27, 2007 [in Spanish]
Héroes a votación
"La cadena CNN, a través de su sitio web www.cnn.com/heroes ha iniciado un concurso que pretende elegir al héroe del planeta, el más votado. El ganador recibirá 25 mil dólares y entre los concursantes se encuentra el estadounidense Mathias Craig, quien ha desarrollado un proyecto de energía renovable en comunidades de la Costa Caribe nicaragüense donde nunca habían tenido ese servicio."
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La Estrella de Nicaragua, October 25, 2007 [in Spanish]
Mathias Craig catalogado un héroe para CNN por trabajar para los nicas
"Mathias Craig se dedica a la labor de instalar sistemas de energía renovable -turbinas de viento- en las comunidades de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua. A través de la firma BlueEnergy’s siendo una organización que ofrece un bajo costo y sostenible que brinda soluciones energéticas de las comunidades marginadas en una parte del Caribe nicaragüense, a través de la construcción, instalación y mantenimiento de la energía eólica y solar."
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Spherio, October 19, 2007
Radio interview with blueEnergy co-founder and executive director, Mathias Craig
"Spherio hosts Amy Battisti-Ashe, Kendra Johnson and Froy Sifuentes discuss renewable wind/solar energy in Nicaragua with Mathias Craig, MIT alumnus and founder and executive director of Blue Energy (www.blueenergygroup.org). As always, the Spherio hosts also discuss recent news, play some music, and share a Spanish language radialistas production."
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Flex Your Power, October 12, 2007
San Francisco-Based blueEnergy Brings Wind and Solar Power to Rural Nicaraguans
"San Francisco-based blueEnergy is delivering renewable energy to hundreds of residents along Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coast. Guillaume and Mathias Craig and a small crew of volunteers have been installing, with help from residents, solar panels and wind turbines to bring power to villages, schools and health clinics."
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Tech Museum Awards, September 18, 2007
THE TECH MUSEUM OF INNOVATION ANNOUNCES 2007 TECH MUSEUM AWARDS LAUREATES
"For the seventh year, The Tech Museum of Innovation, one of the country's premier science and technology museums, has today named 25 innovators from around the world to be honored by this year's The Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity. Presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum Awards honor individuals who are applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The esteemed group of Laureates announced today was selected from hundreds of nominations sent in from 68 countries."
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Civil & Environmental Engineering News, September 18, 2007
CEE alumnus harnesses the wind in Nicaragua
"A CEE alumnus received the CNN Heroes award in July for his persistent hard work and ingenuity in providing sustainable electricity to isolated communities along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast."
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San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 2007
S.F. nonprofit's energy vision lights Nicaraguan villages' future
"Blue Energy works mainly with Rama and Miskito Indians, who form part of an autonomous zone of 650,000 inhabitants with greater independence from the national government than the rest of the country. Since it began operations in Nicaragua, Blue Energy has provided electricity to five villages and 1,400 residents. To date, the foundation's most remote site is Punta de Aguila, a 51/2-hour trip south of Bluefields over choppy waters."
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August 14, 2007 - blueEnergy's executive director Mathias Craig was recently interviewed by the socialedge's Global X initiative, a program that highlights the work of social entrepreneurs. The interview went live on socialedge's website on August 14th, with the intro "Watch Mathias Craig as he tells Global X how he felt (not too good!) the day he came back to Nicaragua only to realize that the community was using electricity to watch Mexican telenovellas (soap operas). That is, until his brother walked by the school..."
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 On June 6, 2007, Nina Alvarez and Nicolas Garcia from CNN visited blueEnergy in Bluefields, Nicaragua to film brothers Mathias and Guillaume Craig for CNN's Global Initiative " CNN Heroes." CNN Heroes spotlights and celebrates the very best of humankind by showcasing examples of ordinary people who have accomplished extraordinary deeds. On June 7, 2007, CNN accompanied blueEnergy over 30 miles on the open ocean through a major storm to Monkey Point. There, CNN filmed blueEnergy raising its turbine and turning on the lights in Monkey Point for the first time. The CNN segment was presented by Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, July 31st, and was rebroadcast severl times later in the week and the following week. The segment, plus bonus footage is available now online here.
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blueEnergy's Executive Director, Mathias Craig, and Director of blueEnergy in Nicaragua, Guillaume Craig, were interviewed in June 2007 by Nicaragua's Canal 11 - ESTV. |
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July, 2007 - blueEnergy is featured in a Sunday edition of La Prensa, Nicaragua's leading newspaper. The article discusses the current energy crisis in Nicaragua and blueEnergy's innovative model for addressing the crisis in remote regions of the Caribbean Coast.
Read the online version (in Spanish and without graphics).
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blueEnergy was featured in the United Nations Development Program's 2005 report on human development in Nicaragua.
Read the online version
(in Spanish and without graphics). |
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July, 2007 - blueEnergy's Christian Casillas is featured in New Mexico's Journal North newspaper.
Download Article |
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June, 2007 - blueEnergy featured in the "Americas", the magazine of the Organization of American States.
Download Article |
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blueEnergy QuickFacts:
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Number of Installations:
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8
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| Number of Communities Served: |
6
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| Total Number of Beneficiaries: |
1,500
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| Installed Capacity (kW): |
7.5
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| Number of Local Employees: |
14
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| Total Number of Historical Volunteers: |
+85
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