Hello! I’m Junichirou Ishio.
A few days before, July 4, Mr. William Hong made a final presentation to finish his doctoral course. (The presentation consists of 60 minutes presentation time and 30 minutes Q&A time. Quite long!!)
His research topic is about rural electrification. He had been conducting actual electrification projects in some small islands in Philippines. As a first step, he introduced solar lanterns and constructed lantern rental system to make the system self sustainable in the local area. His electrification projects use solar power. Now solar power systems are very popular in the world and we are introducing solar home systems (SHS) and mega-solars. However when we think about rural electrification, SHS and mega-solar systems are not always proper solution. Basically the introduced technologies to rural areas should be managed by the local residents. Compare to solar lantern, SHS and mega-solar are too complicated to be managed by themselves. Moreover the necessity of lighting is still very high in these areas. So the impact of introducing solar lanterns is very significant as a first step of electrification. William-san has assessed the impact of the project quantitatively and qualitatively based on the actual information from the fields and deeply understood statistical methods. His work was well received.
He is not only a researcher but also a social activist and good teacher. He founded International development Academy Tokyo-Tech (IDAcademy) and ruralenergy.org with his friends. I succeeded IDAcademy from him, thanks to him, I and our teams are very actively moving to contribute to the world. He gave us chances to express ourselves and taught us how to start project. I respect and thank his works.
↑He is producing pure water from sunlight and sea water.↑