Subject: Energy Crisis in Kazakhstan: INFO AND ADVICE NEEDED!

From: [email-masked] (Ariadna A Solovyova)
Date: 15 Nov 96 02:02:39 GMT

Hi,

I'm a student from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Union republic, whose
residents now suffer from fuel shortages. Many of my friends in Almaty
(the capital of Kazakhstan) have been cooking on fire for a few weeks.

I've found some exciting info and plans for solar cookers and will send
them to my friends; I will also travel there soon and deliver materials
that are hard to obtain there. Almaty is one of the sunniest cities in the
former SU, so solar energy has a great potential there.

I need more information about all kinds of solar devices (especially those
which could be used by apartment dwellers), as well as efficient (and,
preferably, easy to construct) woodstoves. Also, any advice on what people
could do to help themselves in this situation would be very welcome. I
would be thankful for pointers to books, magazines, WWW sites, mailing
lists, commercial sources, and especially plans and designs that could be
used to construct needed devices.

The worst problem there is cooking and water heating, since most people
have gas stoves, and natural gas supplies have been cut off. However,
electricity and central heating have recently been down several times as
well. So if anyone knows where I could get portable generators that run on
something else than natural gas (alcohol? kerosene?), portable electric
stoves, or anything else of that sort, please contact me! 

If you represent a company that supplies any of those things, I could help
you make business contacts with companies and US agencies in Almaty if you
are interested.

Thank you very much in advance!

Ari Solovyova

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 16:07:42 GMT

>Ari Solovyova

Hello Ari,

For solar cooking information I suggest you contact Solar Cookers
International , 1724 Eleventh St. Sacramento, CA 95814. (916) 444-5379
fax or (916) 444-6616 phone.

For plans on very efficient wood cook stoves, contact Volunteers in
Technical Assistance (VITA) 1815 Lynn St., Suite 200, P.O. Box 12438,
Arlington, VA 22209-8438. (703) 276-1800 phone.  (703) 243-1865 fax.

Good luck

Regards,
Joel N. Gordes

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From: Bob Cobler <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 21:23:21 -0800

> Thank you very much in advance!

You should read Home Power, a very good magazine that describes all
sorts of alternative energy devices...send an email to:
[email-masked].  The magazine is probably in the library.

good luck