2008 Woodie Awards
Using the sun to make Fenway area greener
Danielle Capalbo
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: News
|
In his Fenway apartment on a bright, hot Saturday, the local activist pointed to a small solar panel on the ledge outside his living room window. As far as he knows, when he bought the unit in 1986, it was the first in the city - a fitting fact for a man who has spent almost 30 years promoting and pioneering solar power in Boston.
"We have to be able to self-rely on renewable energy sources," he said, with his face just behind a beam of sunlight that streamed through the window of the Solar Room.
For five years, a group of Fenway residents - from Northeastern students to local board members - have met here once a month amid solar cookers, mostly handmade, stacked atop one another; and appliances like a record player, lamps and a fan that are all powered by Kamal's 30-year-old solar generator unit.
The group is called Solar Fenway, a volunteer committee of the Fenway Community Development Corporation formed in 2002 with Kamal's help.
"What we have been committed to is bringing solar energy into the Fenway," he said.
In the past two years, they have installed solar systems on the Boston Arts Academy and Fenway Views, a condominium development.
Kamal first turned to solar energy as a Northeastern undergraduate, stirred in the late '60s by a budding war in the Middle East. Peace was Kamal's main concern as an anti-war activist, and he soon realized a connection between peace and energy.
"I started just asking myself ... 'If one of the reasons for war is oil, what alternative is there to it?" he said.
The ancient idea of the sun as the source of all energy was not new, he said, yet he was impressed by advances like the solar-powered space satellites.
"The technology was being explored for its possible earth uses," he said. "So I started researching, learning as much as possible."
Almost 30 years later, the Brandeis University professor is at the forefront of solar energy in the city. He has lectured on solar energy across the world from El Salvador to India, his native country.
Six years ago, his work caught the attention of Mayor Thomas Menino, who had recently taken a strong interest in installing solar systems throughout the city, said Menino's policy advisor Sarah Zaphiris.
"Sajed's one of the first names you hear when you start looking into that kind of thing," Zaphiris said.
Be the first to comment on this story