Hi Jeff,
It good to read on your blog as it is adding my limited knowledge in the Sustainability especially those of sustainability investment which now my main task.
keep up the good work Jeff
rgrds,
dian
That is cool. However, hydro-electric power is a term that has been historically synonymous with dams. Dams now draw so much ire from the green community, that hydro-electric is pretty much off-the-map in the US. Today, diverting water from its natural course or creating a man-made lake is viewed as environmentally unsound. I went to the following:
http://www.xelateco.com/index.ph...id=14&
Itemid=46
The concept drawing shows that it is simply a water diversion technology. I am all for this type of technology. However, I must ask why is it okay for use in the developing world but not in the "developed" world? There is still a lot of untapped power flowing downstream here.
The "micro-" prefix is the key here... not damning a whole river, but diverting water, or incorporating the generator in such a way so as not to impede the total flow.
I would have to assume that this village is extremely remote and isolated from other human encampments to agree that "micro" is the best alternative. If there are villages spotted up and down the river, eventually all will want electrification and the benefits it brings. In such a case, would dozens of "micros" be the way to go or would the development of something on a larger scale be in order. I am not saying that I disagree with this application, just questioning whether or not this application is the best to meet what will likely be an expanding market. We have dammed whole rivers here because the demand was and is high, and a large facility tends to be more efficient than dozens of smaller ones. Dotting the countryside with dozens of micros could have an undesired negative impact on a flowing river's eco-system. I do not know if anyone has even studied such issues.
It may be worth looking at the history of the United States' electrification. Edison wanted an electric generating plant on every city block feeding DC to his customers. His technology required many factories because DC is difficult to transmit over long distances. Westinghouse (thanks to Tesla) developed AC that could be transmitted cross country. This proved to be more efficient and environmentally sound as the number of polluting factories could be reduced. Edison and Westinghouse nearly went to war with each other over whether AC or DC is better. In the end, Westinghouse won.
@ Bobby B.
This is Cat from the AIDG. I'm in a rush now, but I will write with more precise details later.
1) An important thing to know about micro-hydro is that it does not at all involve damming. Because of their size, these projects typically have low negative environmental impacts. I'll ask some folks at AIDG for good references on the subject.
2) Large scale hydro would be unfeasible at the CNA for two reasons. The water source is basically a small stream and a larger project would have been far more expensive then the community could afford.
3) The CNA is fairly isolated from the main town. It's a longish drive with rough terrain. At some point, we imagine that a grid extension will get to them. When that happens, they will be ready to tap into municipal power as the transmission lines/electric poles that XelaTeco set up meet the necessary standards.
5) AIDG/XT did not dictate to the community. They are an amazingly organized group of agricultural workers who had hooked up with the University of San Carlos in Xela and obtained a grant from the UNDP to do this project. XT came on as their contractor and advisor. The CNA's story is truly inspiring. I would check out their website at http://www.comunidadnuevaalianza.org .
6) Because XT has a diversified product line, there are other community level infrastructure improvements that we can offer to potential customers such as larger biodigesters, small windmills, etc.
Thanks for your comments btw. more later...
Thanks, Cat!
Alright Bobby B. I sent our executive director your comment since he knows more about the fine details of the hydro project at the finca and hydro in general. Here is his reply:
"In response I would say that ultimately grid extension is the best option for the economic and social development of the village. To prepare for this, the CNA transmission system that Xelateco installed exceeds current Guatemalan standards for a local high tension transmission ( http://www.aidg.org/gallery.htm?...?
g2_itemId=1432 ). In truth grid extension is certainly logistically possible, but it is a long ways off due to political and corruption issues. Unfortunately this is the case for many villages in Guatemala and throughout the world. If done in an environmentally sensitive fashion with good local providers, both micro an pico power schemes can provide opportunities for economic and social development to villages while they are waiting for grid extension. Micro is useful for the village scale, but it takes a village to afford a micro hydro scheme, so sometimes social, geographic, or economic factors require pico hydro installations for families.
In the US we get the importance of electricity as a basic utility. Electricity is not just straight power but socially enabling power. The ability to run lights to extend studying hours for children, run tools, charge cell phones for communications, provide entertainment at the end of hard days of manual labor. All of these things significantly increase both quality of life and economic productivity. Fewer children leave villages for cities when there is electricity in a village.
A home removed from the grid in the US will not simply wait for the utilities to extend out to where they are. The home owner will most often find an affordable contractor for solar, wind or hydro to get them a running system as soon as possible. We are trying to give rural villages in Guatemala the same option by training a local affordable contractor and manufacturer (unfortunately most hydro components are priced for the US and Europe and are way outside the price range for folks making 2-4 dollars a day, so you need local manufacture).
Our mission compels us to train in a way that is more rigorous and environmentally focused than existing standards of work in the region. Even though proper environmental impact statements are not required for systems under 5 MW in Guatemala we have Xelateco take into consideration these guidelines for systems as small as 250 watts. Xelateco does run of the river hydro schemes. They don't dam, and they don't take all the water available in the river. Indeed in this case, free water flow of the river/stream is vital to the economic development of the CNA, which capitalizes with ecotours to a waterfall just downstream of the intake weir. At that location the runoff from the hydro system returns to the original source in the abutting property.
Since it will be a long time until the grid makes it to m
oops his message was too long. Here is the rest...
"Since it will be a long time until the grid makes it to much of Xelateco's service area, the question comes down to which has a lower environmental impact, continuous diesel transport with a pretty high spill rate, batteries getting moved by truck to daily to huts by battery charging services, and then discarded in midden and burn piles (yes people burn batteries, they burn everything, though here is a great battery recycling industry in the cities), or relatively sensitively installed micro-hydro systems? Also just for reference, Xelateco is starting to do assessments to repair or update systems from the 30s and 40s that have/had kept villages lit during the Guatemalan Civil War. This conflict coincidentally destroyed or led to the decay of much of the country's internal industry and infrastructure. Imagine if those people had just waited for the grid to extend to them these past 60 years.
-Peter Haas"
Jeff, you called out the big guns for me. That's just too cool.
Seriously, it appears that I was right on some points and lacking information on others. These folks are isolated and this does appear to be the best option since expansion by the utility company into this area is years away. It's sad to see that political corruption is literally keeping these villages in the dark.
Cat is correct when he says:
"A home removed from the grid in the US will not simply wait for the utilities to extend out to where they are."
I believe that electrification and telephone service are available to all in the US now, however, other utilities are not. I live in an area that is not serviced by natural gas, cable television, or high speed internet. These are luxuries to be sure, but if I am willing to pay a premium, there are options available (propane tanks, satellite communications, etc.). I can not imagine living somewhere that the state would prohibit such things.
Jeff, I think AIDG has been one of your best features of late. Keep of the good work and best of luck to you both.
Thanks, Bob... they're doing good work! BTW, Cat is a she... (short for Catherine)...
Yes, I would agree both AIDG is really doing some great things. I've been reading the blog for awhile, but I just discovered their technology network!
http://www.aidg.net/index.php?op...itory&
Itemid=34
I'm sure this info is in there somewhere, but how much head (in general) needs to be available to drive these systems?
I would guess that it is not entirely a function of head (i.e. elevation drop), but more a function of potential energy. A smaller stream would require a larger elevation drop than a larger stream to have the same energy signature. I am sure that AIDG could vary the blade geometry of the turbines to take advantage of either water source.
Yes, that is true...but it seems to minimize the ecological impacts and piping costs you would want to have a smaller amount of flow, with higher pressure. . . but then again I don't know diddly about turbine design.
Regardless, cool project.
@ doinkman
The amount of head that is needed depends on a variety of factors: water flow rate, amount of electricity you want to generate, type of turbine you will be using, etc.
We're going to be putting alot more info on micro-hydro up on aidg.net in the coming months (thanks for the mention), until then, this is a rather clear summary:
http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/
REN...dro_index.shtml
very good!
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