This recent video sent to us by one of our partners in Ukraine shows how NUE solar generator providing power for an eye surgery in a dark hospital room in Ukraine. With 30% of the country’s power stations destroyed from Russian attacks, the national grid is unreliable and prone to blackouts. These generators are crucial for medical professionals to complete life-saving procedures.
New Use Energy is proud to announce the build and delivery of a resilient solar plus battery storage trailer for use by 17 Humboldt County fire agencies in the Eureka, California area to use for emergency response.
Through the work of Captain Richard Birt and his non-profit Empowered by Light, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority facilitated a 1-year assignment of the trailer for Humboldt County. The donated SunWing™ 2500 was built by NUE with donations from Schneider Electric, Simpliphi (battery) and Empowered by Light.
“The off-grid power source to use in the Southern Humboldt area will be very helpful for many incidences, especially as a command station. Communications and lighting are both very important aspects that this solar powered trailer will be able to assist with as an incident command center,” said Marianne Bithell, Program Specialist for Infrastructure for the Redwood Coast Energy Authority. “It will replace 100 gallons of fuel per day, saving much needed dollars to be used for other firefighting needs.”
The SunWing™ solar trailer give firefighters experience using a solar and battery clean energy trailer as a noiseless portable command center for emergency response that can run and charge equipment as needed.
This specific trailer will be the first commercial deployment of the SunWing™ 2500. This trailer features several new innovations that make it stand out:
NUE’s Head of Product Development Eric Youngren traveled to California with the trailer to provide the fire agencies with a walk through of the trailer and training on the features.
Learn more about our line of solar trailers here.
We have received:
We are very grateful to New Use Energy!
Together towards victory!
#stoprussia#standwithUkraine#helpUKRAINE #tapsUkraine
This article originally appeared on KEYT.com here.
CAMARILLO, Calif-Ventura County firefighters are learning about solar safety issues.
This week Classes are being taught by an award-winning retired Las Vegas Fire Captain who helped put solar on fire stations in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Richard Birt has seen the lack of power kill people and he is believes solar can save countless lives during disasters.
“This lesson is about safety, this is about saving lives with clean resilient energy,” said Birt, “Power outages are killing people and what we can do is back up communities with clean solar panels and batteries.”
Crews are also learning about protecting themselves while protecting homes with electric car chargers, and solar systems. It is no longer as simple as turning off the electricity
Birt also demonstrated how to use portable solar charging units and trailers. Firefighters now use portable kits for their own vehicles while departments bring trailers to places that have lost power during fires or other disasters.
New Use Energy (NUE) displayed a small trailer that can be towed by a car. CEO Paul Shmotolokha, who was raised in Thousand Oak called it a ” power machine on wheels.” He said it can help homes, schools and businesses during power emergencies.
“There is no fuel needed.”
Direct Relief in Santa Barbara County is already using trailers to respond to disasters.
“You wheel this up and everybody can plug into all the outlets here on the outside or on the inside, you can run refrigerators inside, all sorts of machinery, and it just doesn’t need any extra power to regenerate, it works off batteries that are powered by solar panels, “said Shmotolokha.
Birt travels all over the world teaching firefighters how to protect themselves and the communities they serve.
“Teaching in Ventura County is two things, we teach firefighting safety with solar and batteries, but we also teach resiliency so communities can protect themselves from all power outages with the fires and basically save lives with electricity, solar electricity.”
He said other departments are welcome to check out the classes through Thursday at the county training facility off Durley Avenue in Camarillo.
Within hours of the invasion of Ukraine, and thanks to a call to action from Footprint Project’s Will Heegaard, the New Use Energy family began putting the wheels in motion for a humanitarian response.
NUE CEO Paul Shmotolokha’s wife Bohdanna grew up in Lviv, Ukraine and has a number of family members still in country impacted by the war. She immediately started a GoFundMe campaign and quickly raised over $25,000 for Footprint Project to support refugees.
NUE’s partnerships quickly expanded to include SmartAid, Enova, FootPrint Project, Moldova World Children’s Fund, ITDRC, Unite to Lite, Gaard One and Global Empowerment Mission. Thanks to these partners and several large donors, the total raised reached over $600,000 of assistance.
Using Shmotolokha’s network of international contacts and the experience of the NUE team with logistics, particularly when it comes to shipping power components, the group was able to provide vital humanitarian relief within the first few weeks. Given the severity of the blackouts and grid failures happening throughout Ukraine, the team decided to focus on these power solutions for Ukrainian citizens and refugees. “Our partners in Ukraine and Moldova communicate the needs. Working with Footprint Project we try to focus on a niche which is the lack of power but our partnership with Smart Aid and Moldova World Children’s Fund (WMCF) brought us into more areas such as refugee camp infrastructure, medicine and communications,” said Shmotolokha.
As a US Army veteran, Shmotolokha had already joined Team Rubicon and when the war started he recruited family members in Ukraine and together they helped Team Rubicon’s recon team enter Ukraine and establish the base of operations which now has over 20 volunteers serving in Western Ukraine. “Helping other NGO’s in an area of the world where they are not familiar is easy when people like Yarema from Lviv step up quickly and go out of their way to help Americans who want to help Ukraine.”
Surgical Headlights and Battery Packs
Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) purchased 60 battery operated surgical headlamps from Enova that Shmotolokha delivered to the Western Ukrainian Children’s Medical Center for further distribution to a network of hospitals in Ukraine. These headlamps made it into the conflict zones where civilians are being wounded and doctors need them to help treat casualties. Medical illumination devices are high in the lists of needs from hospitals in the active war zones.
These headlamps made it into the hand of doctors on the ground in conflict zones treating wounded civilians.
Additionally, NUE is building 100 solar generators and portable power stations for SmartAID and Footprint Project which are being shipped to hospitals and used for backup power for critical communications. The portable power stations are also being shipped to provide power for ambulances and first responders. “Thanks to Tier 1 Solar, Merlin Solar and M&P Canopies of California who moved so quickly to provide us with the materials for us to quickly manufacture our lightweight portable solar panels that make it possible to airlift them quickly to Ukraine” said Shmotolokha.
Winter Hats with USB Rechargeable Lights
Gaard One packaged and shipped 800 warm winter hats with USB rechargeable lights. These hats will be distributed to nurses, doctors, first responders and people seeking shelter in bunkers.
Beds and Solar Generators for Refugees in Moldova
Thanks to a cash donation to the Moldova World Children’s Fund, 1,000 beds and bedding are being sourced from Moldova and delivered to a refugee camp near Palanca. Footprint Project has purchased a solar trailer that will be manufactured in Germany and delivered Moldova.
Other aid organizations have turned to NUE because of company’s success in getting these supplies into the country.
“We want to do good as a company,” said Shmotolokha. “In times like these, you can’t just think about your own business. So the team had to divert time and attention to these medical related initiatives and refugee assistance in various areas”.
Efforts are still ongoing to provide support to Ukraine conflict survivors. To donate to the campaign or get involved, Fundraiser by Paul Shmotolokha : Help Ukrainian Conflict Refugees and Hospitals (gofundme.com) or direct to Footprint Project.
