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Making a biosand water filter

July 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

This is the seventh in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

After spending time in Sabana Grande with the Solar Women of Totogalpa, I headed to Bluefields on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua for my second class with Solar Energy International. At Bluefields we partnered with blueEnergy to learn about wind energy and clean water technologies. We spent the first few days on the National Technical Institute (INATEC) campus, which produced wind turbines on-site. We learned about how the wind turbines are built, as well as about various local communities and the community-based needs assessments which were conducted to determine which communities would receive the turbines.

The problem: lack of infrastructure

One might think that because we were still in Nicaragua, the challenges on the Atlantic coast must be similar to the challenges on the Pacific coast. In fact, there were large differences:

The Atlantic coast is made up of two autonomous regions, the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (often referred to as RAAN, “Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte”) and the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region (often referred to as RAAS- Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur). About 57% of the country’s territory is in these two regions. So what does this mean from a practical standpoint? Well, first, diverse populations and languages. While in the rest of Nicaragua Spanish is spoken; here there are seven different languages: Garifuna, Miskito, Creole English, Rama, Sumo-Mayanga and Spanish. For the area that we were in Spanish, Creole English, Rama, and Miskito were spoken. So you can imagine the challenge bringing together different groups that might not only be different ethnicities but don’t have a common language.

This also means that there is a lot of red tape and overlapping authority that one has to go through to get anything done. This certainly seems to contribute to the difference in standards of living that the projects I participated in were meant to alleviate. And it made the projects launched by blueEnergy even more impressive.

One solution: Biosand water filter

One example is a biosand water filter, an inexpensive filtration device without moving parts that can theoretically last indefinitely.  The only caveat is that the filter needs to be used with the same source of water throughout its lifespan.

Here is a how-to video of my team constructing a biosand water filter:

And here is a short video of the filter in action:

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter


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The Solar Women of Totogalpa

March 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the sixth in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

Some of the Solar Women with their children

In my last post, I described helping to provide power for a “solar restaurant.”  The Solar Women of Totogalpa have decided to open a restaurant which will be completely run on solar energy, will use solar ovens and will sell food that they grow and produce on-site. They have already begun an organic vegetable garden to supply the restaurant with ingredients.  This latest business venture could provide the women with added income to spend on their families for things such as education as well as to further invest in their community.

This group, Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa, was recently featured on Channel 2 news in Nicaragua.  If you speak Spanish, please take a look at the exciting coverage.

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?


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Is renewable energy practical?

February 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the fifth in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

Light Bulb

A light bulb installed by my group for a local restaurant

I went to Nicaragua to learn about renewable energy, both how it works and what the challenges and successes are in low and middle-income countries. I’m not going to write about who should use renewable energy, or how much of their energy should be renewable.  I was more interested in the practical matter of whether or not renewable energy is currently a viable option for rural areas.  The answer is a resounding yes.

Many people in Nicaragua would prefer to be connected to the national grid. You have unlimited access to electricity and it is heavily subsidized.  However, for 35 percent of the population that is not an option, and personally I feel that it is unfair to say to a family that they should simply wait years for access to electricity. Because renewable energy – including solar, hydro, and wind — can come from stand-alone systems, it can be implemented now. This allows for immediate changes in people’s lives.

For me there are a few main questions that can help to determine whether a technology is “feasible”:

  1. Are the skills required to implement and maintain the technology available?
  2. Are the tools necessary available?
  3. Is it possible for the intended recipient to meet the financial cost?

Skills

Solar water distiller

In Sabana Grande we installed four solar panels to provide electricity for a future restaurant. This required us to secure the panels to a frame, connect the panels in sequence, cut conduit tubes and wires, string the wires through the tubes, and connect the wires to the batteries, the switches and the lighting fixtures that we installed. Now, I’m not what you’d call “handy.” In fact, before I went to Nicaragua, I’d never used our cordless drill. So I was quite surprised (and proud) that wiring a building was pretty straight forward.  It took us two days to do everything, but by the time we finished on day two — there was light! So the skills necessary to implement and maintain the technology are available.

Tools

Solar panels

I’d say the first rule of thumb for using tools in low-resource settings is creativity. There are never enough tools, and often you don’t have the right tools. Nevertheless, given all these constraints, it was certainly possible to do solar installations. There are some things that need to be imported (deep-cycle batteries, solar cells, etc.) but everything else you need can be found locally. We made jumper cables to connect the batteries (cutting the heavy gauge cable wire with a hacksaw, stripping it with a utility knife, fitting the copper filaments into a copper, and then crimping it with a crimping machine). We used hand saws, hack saws, screw drivers, hammers, etc.

One of the challenges is that most renewable energy installations rely on battery banks to store energy. Otherwise you would only be able to use electricity when it is sunny or windy. Deep-cycle batteries last the longest, and of those the ones that are “flooded batteries.” (There are also “sealed batteries” which as the name implies are sealed and therefore you don’t add any water). With the flooded batteries you must fill the battery with distilled water every 3-6 months.  Distilled water can seem like an impediment (especially since there was no running water in Sabana Grande), but the Mujeres Solares built a solar water distiller out of wood, a metal plate, glass and copper tubes. When placed in the sun the water evaporates, leaves the minerals behind, and condenses as distilled water on the glass. So other than a few items which need to be brought in, the tools necessary to install renewable energy are available even in very rural settings.

Interestingly, many of the solar panels installed in Nicaragua are made domestically. Grupo Fenix and Suni Solar actually make the solar panels from broken pieces of solar cells that they buy by the pound and trim to uniform size. We did not make the large panels which we installed, but we did each build our own solar AA battery charger.

Cost

Making battery chargers

One of my biggest questions when I was first considering renewable energy for developing countries was end user cost. Sure, NGOs can subsidize solar panels, but is that really sustainable? And is it really feasible to rely on external organizations to subsidize systems for the 1.441 billion people on the planet who don’t have access to electricity? While the panels that we installed were relatively large (2 kilowatts), the panels needed for a home are much smaller. Often the PV systems sold to rural homes in Nicaragua are 25 or 35 watt systems. In the short term a PV system, even a small one, is very expensive for a family; however, with the help of microloans, these systems become not only affordable but economical.  According to Grupo Fenix, “Rural families have only the light of candles, kerosene and diesel fuel (very polluting indoors). This inadequate light may cost $10-15 a month, or up to a third of the monthly family income.” So a family could put the money they would have spent on candles, kerosene and diesel fuel toward the repayment of a microloan for a PV system. Even if it takes two or three years to pay off the micro loan, the solar panels can last 20 years and batteries can last 5-10 years if cared for properly.

So in my experience, based on the above three criteria, solar energy is certainly feasible for rural households in Nicaragua today.

A completed battery charger

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter


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Re-seeding the forest

January 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the fourth in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

Erosion in a deforested area

Between 1990 and 2005, Nicaragua lost 21 percent of its forest. Deforestation is a serious issue in many developing countries as it can lead to soil erosion, as well as increased flooding and droughts.  Usually the areas that that are most vulnerable to flooding are the coastal or low-lying areas, but even in a mountainous region, deforestation can have a devastating effect.  Here you can see a picture of erosion as a result of deforestation.

The locals in Sabana Grande told us that recently the quantity and intensity of the flooding has increased.  Like many areas, people often go into the mountains in search of firewood. In fact, 97 percent of wood consumption in Nicaragua is for wood fuels. So what can be done? Part of the answer lies in providing an alternative to using firewood.  For more about that discussion, please see my previous posts on solar ovens.

Re-seeding the forest

Yet part of the solution should be a systematic effort of re-forestation. The women in Sabana Grande have taken this to heart and have, with the assistance of ADRA and USAID, replanted more than 14,000 trees. First they grow native seedlings, as can been seen in the picture to the left. You’ll notice that they have created self-watering plant containers from empty soda bottles.  To create these containers the women drill small holes in the bottle caps and cuts off the bottoms of the bottles. This makes it easier to pour water into the bottle, and also allows the bottle to catch rain. This drip irrigation system supplies the plants with a steady water supply, and only needs to be refilled every couple of days.

When the saplings become larger and hardier they are transplanted to their permanent place on the mountain. While I was in Sabana Grande, I had the opportunity to hike up solar mountain and see some of their work.

 

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter


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The solution: solar ovens

January 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the third in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

Cookies baking in a solar oven

You can imagine that I was pretty excited to learn how to make a solar oven. What’s a solar oven? There are many ways to make a solar oven (also sometimes called a solar cooker), but at its most basic it is a box with a glass top and a reflective lid that takes advantage of the greenhouse effect.  Sunlight enters the solar box through the glass or plastic top. It turns to heat energy when it is absorbed by the dark absorber plate and cooking pots. For those of you who don’t remember your physics classes, when light waves are converted to heat waves they become longer.  They basically become trapped in the box and just bounce around. This is the same effect that you have in a room with a lot of windows on a sunny day.

Cookies fresh from the solar oven

We got to participate in the actual construction of solar ovens (sawing wood, hammering nails, cutting aluminum paper for the reflective lid, etc.) and then we got to put the ovens to use. The oven can get up to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and it works great for anything that you would make in an oven or a slow cooker.

Pros:

  • There is no energy cost
  • The energy is completely renewable
  • The food is delicious
  • There is a decrease in the need to firewood, which helps combat deforestation
  • There are no respiratory diseases associated with this type of cooking
  • The materials are readily available and the construction is simple
  • The ovens provide more free time for women who are doing the cooking

Cons:

  • They don’t work well for making items that need quick bursts of heat, like tortillas
  • They can’t be used for breakfast (since there is no sunlight that early)
  • Most of the food is ready between 11:00am – 4:00pm, since as the sun sets the cookers lose heat
  • During cloudy days or rainy seasons the ovens may not heat up

Chicken and rice cooking in a solar oven

So, as you can see, solar ovens are not a complete solution, as most people would still need or want a supplementary cooking source for early in the morning or on cloudy days. However, if firewood was only used for those times and the solar ovens were used for the rest, the use of firewood would be greatly decreased. (The Solar Women of Totogalpa are also engaged in creating more efficient stoves that can burn briquettes made of agricultural waste such as corn husks.)

I think most of the pros and cons are fairly self-explanatory except for my last item on the pros list. In general cooking items in a solar oven takes longer than over an open fire (about two times as long).  However, when you cook something over an open fire you have to stand at the fire, breathing in the toxic fumes, to make sure that the item doesn’t burn and that nothing catches fire. In contrast, with a solar oven, you put the oven outside and let it heat up, stick the food in the oven and then walk away. When you come back the food is ready.  This then frees up time to do other activities like washing clothes, gardening, caring for children, studying, etc.

Below are pictures of members of my group constructing an oven.

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter


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The problem: cooking with firewood

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the second in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

I decided to start with firewood, since after living with a local family and breathing in those toxic fumes, this issue is near and dear to my heart (and my lungs!).

Roasting coffee the traditional way

In Nicaragua, as in many places, rural families generally cook over open fires inside houses. The use of firewood creates severe respiratory problems, contributes to deforestation, and is costly and time consuming. According to the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution is responsible for the death of 1.6 million people annually.  As women are often responsible for cooking, they suffer 59% of all indoor air pollution-attributable deaths.  (To the right is a picture of my host mother cooking with an open fire, the traditional way of roasting coffee.)

This is also a very serious issue for children, as children under the age of 5 account for 56% of deaths from indoor air pollution.  According to the same WHO report, “Globally, pneumonia and other acute lower respiratory infections represent the single most important cause of death in children under five years.”

Click to enlarge

Types of fuel used for cooking in Nicaragua – click to enlarge

But there is a very low cost, easy solution – Solar Ovens.  Below are pictures of two types of solar ovens: a parabolic solar cooker, and a box-style solar oven which is being used to roast coffee.  I like the box solar ovens much better than the parabolic (umbrella-looking) solar cookers, as with the parabolic cookers you need to follow the sun much more closely.

A parabolic solar cooker constructed of aluminum foil and old CDs

Roasting coffee in a box solar oven

The next blog post will describe the benefits (as well as a few of the challenges) of solar ovens.

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter


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Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua

January 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by Alissa Emmel about renewable energy projects in Nicaragua.

A solar oven course in Sabana Grande

A member of the Solar Women of Totogalpa trains international volunteers in solar oven construction

I just got back from three weeks in Nicaragua, and so Aaron has asked me to write some guest posts about the application of renewable energy and appropriate health technologies that are helping the rural poor in Nicaragua. In each of the posts I will discuss a problem and what the local communities are doing to provide a solution.

I went to Nicaragua with a group of people through Solar Energy International (SEI), an awesome training organization based out of Colorado. The first half of the trip we spent working with solar energy and the second half we spent working on wind energy and water purification. For the solar portion we went to Sabana Grande in the rural north of Nicaragua near the border with Honduras. There we spent a week with the Solar Women of Totogalpa.

Solar ovens at the Solar Center in Sabana Grande

The local women (and men) of the Solar Women of Totogalpa provided us with trainings on solar photovoltaic (PV) installation and solar cooking. The Solar Women cooperative began as a result of training from Grupo Fénix, an organization that started as a club of students at the National Engineering University. Grupo Fénix’s mission is to create sustainable lifestyles through technical and cultural exchange, and to promote and investigate renewable energy technologies.

First off, the women (and men!) were amazing. The members of the local community were our instructors (with translation support provided by SEI). If you are ever in Nicaragua I highly encourage you to go to Sabana Grande to see their solar center; it is an absolute inspiration. In addition to constructing a solar oven, we also learned how to install solar panels and I made my own solar battery charger. I was able to stay with a wonderful host family in the community and got to see first-hand the impact that renewable energy could have in a rural community.

The blueEnergy House in Bluefields

For the second half of the trip we were in Bluefields and Kahkabila on the Atlantic Coast. There we partnered with blueEnergy, an NGO that focuses on improving lives in marginalized communities. They do this by integrating appropriate technology transfers (with a focus on wind, water and health) with capacity building and the empowerment of local communities. There I got to help repair a wind turbine, build a biosand water filter and look at some new well technologies that were being implemented. In the coming posts, I will describe each of these projects in more detail and show how they are making a difference in people’s lives.

Other posts in this series:

1. Renewable Energy Projects in Nicaragua
2. The problem: cooking with firewood
3. The solution: solar ovens
4. Re-seeding the Forest
5. Is renewable energy practical?
6. The Solar Women of Totogalpa
7. Making a biosand water filter

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