Looking back when I started this internship in May until now I can say that I definitely have a better understanding of renewable energy systems and how to properly install and work with them. This experience has been one that I will never forget and know that throughout my career after college I will continue to relate too my experiences at Creative Energies. Being that this is my final day I have been looking at all the pictures and documents that I have made and it is very obvious that I have really grasped how these systems function and am even more passionate about renewable energy now than I was before the internship.  I have first hand experience working with these different systems, which was one of my goals during the internship and by working on 20 projects I feel that I am knowledgeable about these different systems and how they work. The next step is to complete my thesis which I plan to have done by the end of December. This internship was exactly what I expected and it has given me all the information I need to complete my thesis and also have a thesis that stands out from the rest.

Creative Energies Team

I continued gathering all the information in regards to the electric truck and tried to make it easy for anyone to understand what needs to be done with the truck at this point. I placed all the fastensers in plastic bags and labeled them to make it easier for Toby and everyone else to figure out what goes where. I also made a spreadsheet that included all the contact information and the remaining tracking numbers that still needed to be check. I feel that the trasition over to Toby should go smoothly and there wont be any problems that they should run into.

I also made a complete list of all the jobs I worked on in the field and in the office. It was a surprise to see how many jobs I was involved in which in total was 20. I guess I didn’t really pay attention to how many I did because it wasnt important to me as long as I had the chance to be out in the field. Most of the people at the office are at the Pioneer Senior Center completing the wiring which is the last thing that needs to be done before the system can be up and running.

Waking up today for work was a struggle because we arrived back in Lander at 1 am from Jackson. I woke up so sore from the climbing the Grand that I felt like my legs had no strength. As my internship begins to wind down I have started to organize the parts and put together documents for the electric truck to make the transition easier for Toby when I leave. I gathered all the parts that have arrived the past couple weeks and organized them to make it simple for anyone to find any part when needed. The majority of the parts have arrived which made this easier. For my thesis I want to include pictures of all the different parts so I took pictures of them all except the adapter plate and shaft coupler which haven’t arrive yet. I did get some good news about those parts, which was that had been shipped today. Although Wilderness EV was a week late it was still good news to know that the last remaining parts would be arriving soon.

Climbing the Grand Teton this weekend was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and it was a dream come true. I have waited over 7 years to come back to the Grand and make another attempt at summiting it. It was one of the most dangerous things I have done in my life but it was worth the risk.

We woke on Saturday and began the hike to the Moraine camping area which is at an altitude of 10,800 ft. Our starting elevation was 6,732 ft. We hiked at a steady pace without taken any breaks until we reached the meadows at 9,400 ft. It was a very beautiful hike to the meadows and from the meadows we had to hike up very steep switch backs that led us to the Moraine’s. We got to camp and relaxed the rest of the day knowing that the next day was going to be long and strenuous. We all went to sleep early because we were waking up at 3:30 am to begin the summit attempt.

We all woke up quickly when the alarm went off at 3:30 AM  and got ready for our summit attempt. After hiking for several hours through the early morning we got to the technical part of the climb where we roped up. We were very exposed for much of the technical climb with 1000 ft drops less than a foot from where we were climbing. It was scary but I kept thinking about the summit and how much I wanted to make it to the top. We got to the summit (13,770 ft) at 12 PM and the weather could not of been better. It was blue skies all around us and there was barely any wind at the top. After we sat on top for about 20 minutes we began the dangerous part of hiking down the mountain which is when most accidents occur. It was gruelling walking back down with  after summiting because at that point we had be hiking for over 9 hours and we had to descend over 7,000 feet of elevation. We got back to the car safely at 8:30 PM and we all were exhausted. In all we were up for over 21 hours and all we wanted to do was sleep. It was one of the best experiences of my life and having my brother there to experience it with me meant so much to me.

An important aspect of any electrical vehicle is the weight load that the vehicle has because the heavier it is the more power is needed and the bigger the motor must be. At first I had made an excel document that gave a rough view of how much the truck weighed before and  after we took out the engine and other parts as well as how much it would weigh with the new parts installed. The number I came up with was over the gross weighed of the trucks axles making it impossible to install what we needed into the car. This didn’t seem right so I felt it necessary to get an accurate weight of the truck. I took the truck to a truck scale to find out the weight which came out to 2560 lbs, which means that with all the new parts installed the weight will be 4,058 lbs which means that it is suitable for the truck we have. It was reassuring seeing that the truck I had worked on will be suitable for the electrical conversion because if the numbers I came up with originally were accurate then the whole project would be at a standstill.

The rest of the day I spent cleaning up the area around the truck and getting rid of all the parts (engine, gas tank, fuel lines). It was great being able to recycle these parts knowing that they wont be used anymore and one less thing that will contribute to global warming.

It has been very frustrating dealing with Wilderness EV since the beginning of this project with the electric truck. We received a package from them today and not surprisingly it wasn’t the adapter plate or the shaft coupler. Instead it was the quick charger which will be used to recharge the battery bank in the back of the truck. This is very disappointing for me because it is a reality now that we wont be receiving the parts before I head back to the east coast. I have been worried about this for some time and will have to deal with it and do what I can with the parts we already have. I will still use this project as my thesis project because it has been a huge learning experience for me regardless if I don’t get the chance to install all the parts and get the truck running. I have spent days researching and working with the truck even before the parts were ordered. It is more important that I learn about electrical vehicle conversions and also gather information about the different parts used in these electrical vehicles and how they function. This was the main goal of this project and I feel like it was a success. Of course having the truck run on electricity would of been great but it is not the most important from a learning stand point. I now have a better understanding of how a car runs and an even better understand  how to convert a vehicle to run off electricity. Before having the opportunity to work on the truck I had no experience working with cars and now feel like I really understand how they work and feel confident  work on them because I do not have such a large learning barrier. Now that I know we won’t be receiving the adapter plate and coupler while I am here I plan on concentrating on putting the parts that we have into the truck which include the pot box and volt/amp meters. This bad news has definitely caused myself to be down but looking back on the past couple months and what I have learned about electrical vehicles made this experience worthwhile regardless.

Another uneventful day today because I am still waiting for the part to arrive tomorrow and have there are no jobs going on at the moment. I did some reading about the different wiring that needs to be done and also studied the different components that we have received so far. There are definitely some interesting looking parts such as the controller which is used to control the power output of the batteries to the motor. Phil and I examined the wire diagram and discussed how it will all be connected. I feel confident that I will be able to wiring the vehicle without too much trouble and in a timely fashion. Hoping that I will have the car parts tomorrow so that I can attempt to get this car running before I leave.

I began working on the truck today by laying out some of the high voltage wiring that will be used to connect the key components such as the motor and controller to the battery bank which will be located in the truck bed. I am still waiting for the adapter plate and shaft coupler that should arrive sometime this week. It has been quiet in the office but is beginning to pick up as jobs continue to be schedule for the coming weeks. We had a long meeting with everyone today going over the different projects that will be going on in the coming weeks. It looks like there are definently some bigger projects in the works which sadly I wont have the opportunity to work on. I have a week and half left for my internship and plan on taken advantage of every day.

The weather today is not the best for climbing and doesn’t seem to be clearing up anytime soon. Could be another relaxing day here in Lander. Not to worry tho because the rest of the week should be fairly nice and great for climbing which is what I plan to do after work everyday.

Having the Charger, and other smaller parts arrive today was a relief but still no sign of the most important parts…the adapter plate and shaft coupler. I called up Wilderness EV today and basically they messed up and could of sent me the part weeks ago. Thanks for the great customer service. I guess it is a lesson learned that when dealing with other companies for parts and what not you cannot always rely on them. I plan to next week be fully focused on the car and hope that by working two weeks straight I will be able to have the car up and running. The only part needed to be ordered are the vacuum pump which is essentially the brakes.

I worked a half day today because my family was flying up to visit Will and I. It was great to finally see them and should be a great weekend with the whole family.

Some days aren’t the most excited regardless of what you are do. Dan and I went to Red Canyon where we worked on an self installed pv system that Tom Hudbeth installed at his home. There was a storm recently and a lightning strike destroyed his inverter so we were replacing it.  There was really not a lot I could do to help Dan because the majority of the work required just replacing different wires and putting them in conduit. It was interesting to watch Dan install the inverter and learn how he was going about doing it. We were there from 10 am till 6:30 pm which was a long time indeed.

Some parts for the truck arrived today  which means that I can start working on the truck tomorrow. The most important component we received was the Pot Box, which is the device that acts as the accelerator. Tomorrow is going to be a great day as my family is coming up to visit Will and I and also the rest of the parts for the truck will be arriving as well. Now the conversion begins and hopefully it can be finished before I leave.