Greensboro, NC: An engineer with the North Carolina A&T State University School of Agriculture is searching for a common solution to two important energy questions: how to provide electricity to remote areas, and how to provide electricity in an environmentally sensitive way.

"Renewable energy resources are the answer," says Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi, associate professor of agricultural engineering. "We have to find new and better ways of using these resources to produce the energy we need."

Renewable energy resources, says Shahbazi, are resources in virtually unlimited supply, versus energy resources which are in limited supply, such as coal and oil. Common renewable energy resources are the sun, plant material, wind, and heat produced naturally by the earth.

Shahbazi was recently nominated by Dr. Earnestine Psalmonds, NC A&T's Vice Chancellor for Research, to work with the Renewable Energy for African Development project, which is directed by Dr. Leonard Spearman of Texas Southern University.

In his work with this project, Shahbazi will research ways of improving the delivery of solar electricity to remote areas of South Africa, as well as meet with Spearman and other collaborating scientists to initiate a similar project in the United States.

"The mountains, rough terrain, distance from power sources, and low levels of usage typifying much of rural South Africa make delivering electricity through the conventional way of using a line to connect to a power grid expensive and impractical," said Shahbazi. "Therefore, many people in these areas do not have electricity even for such basic needs as lighting."

Though even most remote areas in the United States have electricity, U. S. scientists are searching for more efficient means of delivering electricity to these areas. That's where Shahbazi's work has a domestic aspect.

Shahbazi offers remote agricultural areas as an example of how renewable energy technology might be useful in the United States. "Sometimes a farmer needs an irrigation system in a location far from an energy source," said Shahbazi. "In such a case, being able to use something like solar panels to power the irrigation system would be an ideal solution."

Beyond accessibility and economic issues, the use of renewable energy technology can address environmental and political issues, such as global warming and reliance on foreign oil sources, says Shahbazi.

"The burning of fossil fuels, from which the majority of power plants derive their energy, contributes an abundance of gases to the atmosphere and leads to destruction of the ozone layer, both of which have been linked to global warming and erratic weather patterns," said Shahbazi. "Also, our dependence on oil makes us vulnerable to a number of political situations."

So what stands in the way?

Lowering the costs and enhancing the performance of systems using renewable energy resources are keys to the success of reducing dependence on nonrenewable energy resources, says Shahbazi.

To work toward these goals, students and faculty at NC A&T are experimenting with renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and energy systems which operate using gas and liquid fuels, such as ethyl alcohol or methane gas, which are derived from plant and organic material.

In Shahbazi's "Energy Systems in Agriculture" class, for instance, undergraduate students study the conversion of food waste to ethyl alcohol and the conversion of animal waste to methane gas.

"Renewable energy sources and agriculture are closely linked," said Shahbazi. "And, in a lot of ways, they are dependent on each other, because farmers both use and produce these sources. If we can make these sources more attractive options, we can simultaneously lessen environmental impacts and improve the conditions of rural areas."

For more information, please contact Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi, NC A&T School of Agriculture, at (910) 334-7787.