LI companies helping repower Haiti
From left, Ron Tabbitas of Dynamic Supplier Alignment, Wayne Gutschow of Nextek Power Systems and Nextek engineer Ron Parigoris show how their electricity units work, turning on two light bulbs. (June 9, 2011) Credit: Steven Sunshine
Some Long Island companies have gotten together to help provide more electrical power in Haiti.
Within the next three years, as many as 1,000 U-Haul-sized electricity generating stations will be in quake-ravaged Haiti, allowing businesses and residents of the island nation that is severely short on power to charge cellphones, computers and other portable devices, thanks to a Long Island consortium.
Dynamic Supplier Alignment, a Bohemia-based business developer started 18 months ago by a technology executive and current Dowling College and St. Joseph's College adjunct professor of business Ron Tabbitas, helped put together the consortium that last week shipped six of the 1.5kw solar-powered stations to Haiti.
Tabbitas said that as many as 1,000 such stations will be in that country in the next three years. Tabbitas said DSA is hoping to create an industry on Long Island that supplies power to parts of the world where there are shortages.
Liang Downey, director of digital applications for Nextek Power Systems, a company in Detroit with some employees in Bohemia, said she attended an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference last year where she heard about the organization's efforts to help restore power in Haiti. She said her boss, Paul Savage, wanted to help.
Dynamic Supplier helped Nextek arrang space at Telegence Manufacturing Incubator, a company in Bohemia, where the six stations were built a few months ago.
Wayne Gutschow, Nextek's engineering vice president in Bohemia, said the company donated engineering time, and the materials were purchased by a variety of social and economic agencies, including IEEE. Sirona Cares Foundation, which helps rebuild economies worldwide, has also raised funds to repower Haiti.
"It's a humanitarian effort," said Downey.
But it will also help create businesses in Haiti, said Tabbitas. Haitians using the generators will pay a $10 monthly fee to a franchise that will operate the electricity-generating stations. Government and private aid is available to help with those payments. Dynamic Supplier Alignment said in an announcement that such franchisees could potentially earn $1,000 a month through supplying electricity.
"We built it all here," Tabbitas said.
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