As we are off to the Solomons again shortly, to start the solar and electrical systems for the new Fred Hollows Eye Hospital, in Honiara, I thought Id post for the first time a project we where involved in 4 years ago in the Solomons. Case Study From 2010, Practical uses of renewable energy in the Solomons. Small Photo Essay. What Power Crisis supplied the hardware for the Besi Village Hydro Project Besi Community Village is situated in North Malaita, Solomon Islands. Since 2002, members of the New Zealand-based Society for Community Development Support Inc have worked alongside the people of Besi. The Society’s contribution has been in mentoring and facilitation of the village’s community development (CD) process. CD goals have been set and achieved in such areas as education, health, housing and food security. In late 2008, CD meetings revealed that very little progress had been made in the area of youth unemployment. This area had been identified as a priority throughout the six years of the CD process. Attempts made to initiate village businesses had met with limited success. A key difficulty has been managing the dual goals of employing young people while also maintaining viability of the business enterprises. At the same meetings the long considered plan of providing electricity to the village was discussed. It was recognised that – as well as providing more general benefits such as household lighting – electricity might make possible a number of small enterprises. Besi’s hillside location suggested that hydroelectric generation was a distinct possibility. Measurements of water flow and head indicated that a generation capacity of up to 800 W was possible. Assistance was sought from the Pacific Conservation and Development Trust, who kindly contributed $6000 toward the project. Due to its unavailability in Solomons, most of the equipment for the project was purchased in New Zealand. This approach also permitted a dry-run to be made of installation connections: this was invaluable in pre-empting problems that otherwise might have been encountered on site. The NZ companies What Power Crisis and Eco innovation provided valuable expertise in setting up the system. Support was also given by Rural Direct who gave a generous discount on the pipe. The shortfall in funding was covered by Society members’ contributions. The New Zealand Defence Force very generously transported the equipment to Honiara as part of their charity freight program. From there it was shipped bo malaitay overnight cargo boat then trucked up to Fo’ondo District. To date the following businesses have been initiated or are planned: • Charging service for batteries for household lighting • Charging service for cellphones • A typing service using laptop and printer. • Refrigeration/freezing to allow buying and selling of protein foods such as chicken and especially fish, and making of fruit juice blocks. • Making of clothes Ongoing decision-making is required around the best use of the available electricity at any one time. This in itself is a useful community development exercise. In 2011 it is hoped to make more of these enterprises a reality. These are projects that we like to be involved in, bringing long term benefits to the local community by using renewable energy.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 07:07:30 +0000
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